About the Project
In a town where no one dies, a frustrated obituary writer befriends a very old woman. A one-man comedy about death, love and the written words we will all be remembered by.
First produced at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival by Red Tie Productions at The Space @ The Thistle, August 2-16
“It takes something pretty special to pull off a one-man monologue in a small Fringe venue, but Michael Vukadinovich is a writer of high enough caliber to do this. This is a funny and touching dark comedy about Gilbert, an obituary writer in a town where no-one dies. It’s a conundrum that is bleakly poetic, and Kevin Broberg is wonderfully adept at portraying this as our amiable protagonist.
Gilbert’s first experience with death is as a child. His father, a give-it-a-go kinda guy, believes it’s “always good to try and do things yourself,” and this includes putting down their beloved dog, French Fry. It seems like a career as a striving journalist on the obituaries column is a natural progression for our hero. But he’s unlikely to reach the heady heights of celebrity death coverage in the small American town where he lives, as people have simply stopped dying. But then Gilbert meets Nancy, an elderly apparent widow who is partial to making up stories of her own. Through an unlikely friendship, which ends with Nancy’s death, Gilbert finds companionship in a way that has so far eluded him – at least since French Fry died.
Broberg has an engaging voice perfect for this kind of narrative storytelling, while Vukadinovich has a strong feeling for comic timing. The additional characters are so well-painted you forget you’re watching one man perform.
The piece has the quirky off-beat feel of an American indie film in the vein of Napoleon Dynamite, so it comes as no surprise to learn that Vukadinovich studied at University of California, Los Angeles, California’s centre for scriptwriting, and the show is being adapted into a feature film. It deserves a bigger audience. Go and see it."
~Four Stars from The Scotsman
Production Team
