Morticians in Love by Christi Stewart-Brown, directed by Suzan Kurry

Cast: Mary Wallin and Bryan Royston as the morticians. Rowan Calyx as the androgynous assistant. Issaka Brellenthin and Joshua Paffel as the attractive corpses.

“Everybody should love death this much.”

A shy mortuary owner and her assistant toil alone among the dead until a handsome rival mortician arrives who wants to share more than workspace. And two corpses make five. In those post-Valentine’s weeks of perhaps deflated romantic hopes, Krass offers a very dark comedy that finds the scalpel-sharp edge between unconditional love and unrequited love. “V-day is all but dead … flowers and chocolates, formaldehyde and chloroform. …” The play has no nudity, although the corpses will be scantily clad and the action includes adult sexual situations.

Praise for the play:
“In the midst of death, there is life and love–sacred, profane, unrequited and almost always dysfunctional–in Christi Stewart-Brown’s very black, five-character comedy (counting two corpses). Scarcely fare for the squeamish, with its excursions into heterosexual and homosexual couplings among the living and dead, the play nonetheless comes off as a caustic, funny, sharp-eyed autopsy on the difficulties of love…Morticians in Love may be morbid, but it has a heart.”
—The New York Times

“Christi Stewart-Brown’s charmingly morbid comedy is so cheerful and upbeat, you’ll hardly believe that you’re watching a play about bisexual necrophilia.”
— Paul Birchall, Back Stage West

EIGHT PERFORMANCES (TWO MATINEES)
Friday, Feb 24 — 8pm Thursday, March 2— 8pm (2 tix for $30)
Saturday, Feb 25 — 8pm Friday, March 3 — 8pm
Sunday Feb 26 — 4pm MATINEE Saturday, March 4 — 4pm MATINEE
Wednesday, Mar 1 — 8pm (half price) Saturday, March 4 — 8pm

TICKETS: $20

RESERVATIONS: Bartelltheatre.org or 608-661-9696