Created and performed by Anna Krauze and directed by Coral Tarran, People We Bury Alive is brought to us by the award-nominated Passing Stranger Theatre Company.
This funny, dark comedy could strike a chord as it is based around grief. There is no quiet sobbing, however, because Rita, who is Polish, has other ideas—and the opening scene has a pot of soil spilt out because she is burying Adam alive, her ex-boyfriend. We can hear him from beyond this constructed ‘death’ as he responds to Rita’s claims about sex.
Sex is a theme throughout the play, and Rita is keen to discuss her libido, freely simulating how frisky she is. The play features an inflatable sex doll which her ex ordered, and the doll at times is given centre stage as Rita provides commentary.
We quickly learn that she works in a mortuary, her demeanour matter-of-fact and holding a tepid interest in the deceased. Rita has created a world for herself where life and death meet at the intersection.
We get a real sense of Rita and the hardship of immigration, which includes a sense of guilt associated with leaving family behind—a kind of long-distance countdown to death.
There is something happening subtly on screen—it is highlighting the stages of grief. Rita is resourceful, and the online group for ‘people buried alive’ she has created gives her something to focus on amid the deathly shadows surrounding her.
With other people facing their fate, there are stories of transitioning and relationship ruptures. It is grim, edgy, and a big source of comfort to Rita.
In this place, there is some time for ‘the microphone’, where she blasts social media and instant gratification in a satirical monologue that may resonate with the audience.
It feels like Rita is baring her soul, her intimacy, her theories—but in reality, she has formed an impressionable metaphor, a symbol of hurt and dying interlinked. With Rita, the two forge and combust. She wonders aloud about grief and love and how they may be sisters…
The tension builds. She is facing a significant loss but needs to hold it together, imploringly asking, “How can anyone look so alive and so dead?”—addressing the doll and gripping the enclosed instructions as if they hold the answers to life and death itself.
There is a lot going on, but Anna Krauze interweaves it all with class and unfiltered dignity. When it comes to originality, People We Bury Alive strikes a powerful chord.
