To mark Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief’s Good Death Week, INTERROBANG‽ is joined by some of the most enjoyable writers and performers around to present a new show, Live and Let Die.
So, INTERROBANG‽ thought, what a great bunch of folks to ask some Death Café-style questions, right‽ RIGHT!!!
For example, Ricky Interrobang attended the launch of Jay Whittaker’s brilliant first full-length collection, Wristwatch last year. The poems Jay shared that evening brushed up against death and grief and brushes with death and many other things, so she’s the perfect guest to kick off our virtual Death Café…
‽: Let’s start with an actual Death Café sample question – Where would you like to be when you die?
JW: Under a supermoon.
‽: In 1907, a Massachussetts doctor called Duncan MacDougall claimed to measure the mass lost by a human when the soul departed the body as being 21 grams. Assuming Dr MacDougall was right, what are souls made of?
JW: Essence of synapse, sparks…
‽: Super! Now, let’s get morbid. Or anthemic. Or gleeful. What song would you most like to play at your funeral?
JW: You can usually choose three tracks at the crem. So I have queued up: Anew day, by Mary Margaret O’Hara, Mr Blue Sky by ELO, anything by Mary Casio.
There’s a wake to get to, so let’s stop at one for now!
‽: In Alan Spence’s Way To Go, a young undertaker takes to making brightly painted coffins in unusual shapes (including, say, football boots) at the request of clients. What would make a good coffin for a good death?
JW: An extravagant Ghanaian style number, in the shape of a fountain pen.
‽: Finally, without too many spoilers, what can you tell us about what you’ve got in store for Live And Let Die?
JW: From Wristwatch, poems from my own brush with death and mortality, through the prisms of hideous sideboards and Conchita Wurst. Plus some new stuff about the (in)famous dead: a self destructing lost genius, an establishment figure turned rebel fighter, and the bones of an aviation pioneer…
___________________
Indeed it does, Conchita! Find out more about Jay here, then join Jay, Stuart Kenny, Rachel Rankin for INTERROBANG: Live And Let Die‽ at Good Death Week, on 14th May at Summerhall. Tickets are available here.
Thanks are due to the good people at Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief for their assistance in putting together INTERROBANG: Live And Let Die‽ Check out GLGDGG and the great work they do here.