Tibetan Book of the Dead (Or How Not to Do It Again)

THE STORY: Based on the classic Buddhist text, the play deals with the transmigration of the soul and the choices to be made as the spirit hovers in suspended animation. Brilliantly theatrical in concept and execution, the piece blends music, mime, dance movement and spoken dialogue to create the perpetual stream of colors, sensations and illusions that assail the transient soul and seek to distract it from its proper course. Envisioned as taking place within a human skull, the play depicts the soul re-experiencing the life cycle as, momentarily, it floats free from the trials of earthly existence while striving to overcome the ambitions, wants, jealousies and fears that can obscure the crucial turning point at which it can rejoin the living like a king -head held high and with the errors of previous existence both comprehended and surmounted.Van Itallie, Jean-Claude is the author of 'Tibetan Book of the Dead (Or How Not to Do It Again) ', published 1983 under ISBN 9780822211488 and ISBN 0822211483.