Funeral For Us

Excerpt from Funeral for Us: A Grieving Play

 

ACT I
WOODS

Center stage there is an urn on a slim pedestal. Around the urn on the pedestal are tea light candles, unlit. In a circle around the pedestal, on the floor, are candles of all sorts: fat ones in jars, long ones in candlestick holders, plates of tea lights; they line the perimeter of the stage and they line the aisles, unlit. The theatre is filled with incense for the entire length of this production.

GODDESS enters holding a single candle and stands left of center, speaks: 

We all gather here today to celebrate the life, and death, of _______ . To celebrate, of course, first we must mourn. And so, 

GODDESS crosses to center and lights the candle of the first singer in CHOIR 1, who then starts ‘Woods’ by Bon Iver. On the second verse, the first singer lights the next person’s candle by holding their own out, upright, while the next person angles their candle just so in order to light it, when the second person comes in to sing. They carry on lighting each other’s candles this way until everyone in the CHOIR is holding lit candles while singing. 

When the song is finished, GODDESS goes up to the first person in CONGREGATION(audience) and lights their candle, and so begins:

ACT II