Our Dearly Departed

Photo: Jeremy Portje

Heartland Festival starts season with an interactive comedy
By SANDYE VOIGHT TH staff writer
Published in the Telegraph Herald
Posted with permission.

Black garb is optional for attending the wake of the fictional Seamus O'Malley, but do bring your sense of humor.

This might put the "fun" in "funeral."

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville's Heartland Festival will kick off its summer season with an interactive comedy, "Wake Me When I'm Dead," directed by Vivienne Elborne.

The dinner-theater production will be in a banquet venue of the university's Center for the Arts. The actors will mingle with the audience.

Oh, and there'll be a real coffin front and center, donated by Melby-Bendorf Funeral Home in Platteville, Wis.

"It's a big thing to have to find," Elborne said, unlike other theatrical props that often can be unearthed at local thrift shops. Matt Melby, funeral home owner, said he agreed to donate the use of a wooden casket.

"These have been very popular all over the country," said Elborne, of the interactive show, a first for the festival. "'Nunsense' has a little bit of this, but this one truly puts the audience in the middle of the show."

The cast includes a priest, floozy, an old drunk, Cousin Frankie from Long Island and a few other characters.

At first, her cast members were concerned about the quality of their Irish accents, but the director assured them that the script refers to bad Irish accents.

"As long as it's vaguely Irish, they'll be OK."

The audience interaction will assure that no two performances will be the same.

Elborne is training the actors to encourage audience participation, while knowing when to go on with the thin plot.

"This is a show of very little literary merit, but a huge amount of fun," Elborne said. "The audience needs to be prepared to get into the thick of things and try to solve the murder. There's always a murder after the chicken is served, but a denouement after the dessert."

And, in keeping with the wake's Irish theme, Guinness will be the recommended beer of the evening.

News You Can Use
What: "Wake Me When I'm Dead," interactive comedy
Who: Heartland Festival
When: 7:30 p.m., Friday, June 13; Saturday, June 14; Sunday, June 22; Sunday, June 29; Sunday, July 6; Saturday, July 19; Sunday, July 27; and Saturday, Aug. 2
Where: Center for the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Cost: $25 adults, $17 younger than 18 -- includes dinner