Maybe it’s because I just turned 45.
For some reason, 45 seems more substantial than any year since, maybe, 33 (which meant I outlived Jesus).
Maybe it’s because I’ve finally put some demons to rest (but – oh – be careful. Demons tend to go into hibernation and wait til you aren’t looking and then join the party from the side door wearing a Big Party Hat and bearing Destruction as a party favor) and am looking at the balance of my Days Thus Far from a wiser vantage point.
Whatever it is, Postmortem has become a genuine Benchmark show for me.
The simple idea of having ten improvisers get up onstage and create a fictional account of a life lived and written about in a few paragraphs is daunting and amazing. The whole experiment reminds me of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game Series and the concept of The Speaker for the Dead.
In this novel’s precursor, Ender’s Game, the last surviving member of ‘the Buggers’ contacts the lead character (Ender Wiggin), who had unwittingly wiped out the rest of the species. Ender tells the story of the Buggers as it is related to him, and publishes it as The Hive Queen under the pseudonym “Speaker for the Dead.” The audience of The Hive Queen is not aware of the identity of the author (or that the work is factual and not speculative). However, Hegemon Peter Wiggin (Ender’s brother) recognized the writing and requested that Ender also act as ‘his’ “Speaker”. Ender complies with the request by writing a second book titled The Hegemon, giving a parallel, but uniquely human, perspective to the ideas and lessons of “The Hive Queen”.
The two books become classics and inspire the rise of a movement of Speakers for the Dead. The movement is not a religion, although Speakers are treated with the respect accorded to a priest or cleric. Any citizen has the legal right to summon a Speaker (or a priest of any faith, which Speakers are legally considered) to mark the death of a family member. Speakers research the dead person’s life and give a speech that attempts to speak for them, describing the person’s life as he or she tried to live it. This speech is not given in order to persuade the audience to condemn or forgive the deceased, but rather a way to understand the person as a whole, including any flaws or misdeeds.
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At it’s best, Postmortem treats the life of the Subject in the same way – no research but an unflinching portrayal of an ordinary person going through life, making choices, changing perspectives, learning lessons and, ultimately, just getting through it all.
And here’s the thing – a live lived without trials or adversity or bad luck or hardship A) doesn’t exist although we like to pretend it does and B) is fucking dull to watch unfold. Every one of us is a sinner and a saint, an ideologue and a hypocrite, both full of wisdom and full of shit. We all judge others for their heinous natures while hiding our own so that we aren’t judged in turn. Every one of us is jealous, petty, generous and self sacrificing – all in different moments and at different times.
When it works, the cast of Postmortem behaves collectively like a Speaker for the Dead, offering a way into a life that allows us to attempt to understand ourselves as a whole.
I’d love to see you swing by the Viaduct and check it out.
