Theatre Will Not Prepare You For Death is an experimental theater piece exploring death, love and family based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The production is the stage directorial/producing debut of film maker Olga Lvoff, whose previous work is primarily documentaries. Written by Russian playwright Nika Velt and co-directed by Lvoff and Elena Che, it will be performed by a cast of five actors and five dancers and employs Tibetan masks, throat singing, audience interaction, biomechanics and choreography.
The play's story, originally written by Velt from her dreams, is set in a Greek family but could happen anywhere—it is universal. A cosmopolitan family returns from the funeral of its Grandmother, only to find her sitting in the kitchen eating koliva, a dish based on boiled wheat that is used liturgically by Greeks for commemorations of the dead. The family, nonplusssed by this, deliberates what to do and decides to read the Tibetan Book of the Dead to Grandma to help her get to the other side. Presented by Diplodocus Arts.
