Steve Cosson is the writer and director of The Undertaking. He is also the Artistic Director of The Civilians, a company whose mission is to create “new theater from creative investigations into the most vital questions of the present.” They are the troupe that premiered Anne Washburn’s phenomenal Mr. Burns, a post-electric play. In The Undertaking, the vital question being explored is death.
In an office, Steve (Dan Domingues) is recording Lydia’s (Aysan Celik) thoughts for a play that he is writing. This process of interviewing various individuals about topics ranging from death, illness and the fear of dying, is the framework. Some of it is morbidly funny. While the two actors play interviewer and interviewee, they also break out into other people who have been recorded, including an ovarian cancer survivor and Everett Quinton, the off-Broadway star of the Ridiculous Theater Company. From these interviews, the piece morphs into a therapy session for Steve, who is considering his mother’s life in a nursing home and his own mortality. Even added into the mix are visual clips and an analysis of the Jean Cocteau film, Orpheus. New knowledge: rubber gloves are the gateway to the afterlife.
An inventive premise makes The Undertaking interesting. The therapy section lost me a little as it went on, although admittedly that could be a personal reaction. Perhaps the comedic possibilities could be amped up even further; think Sofia Vergara as Lydia insisting that the interview is a “dialogue” as she helps Steve through his process. Overall, The Undertaking is an unusual, creative piece well-staged in the upper east side’s 59E59 theater. The audience skews older here which made the experience even more surreal.