"Wake" at the Purple Rose

continued

I grew up in the funeral profession and found the play to be oneof the best I’ve seen in a long time. It is a story about grief and loss, how each of us deals with them differently, how we help each other through them, the wrong turns we take in their grasp. The delicate interplay between living and dead, and our communication with both, was well developed.

The poignant picture of a woman who has the courage to touch and care for the dead, which many of us do not, but who is afraid to go outside because of grief, was well developed in the play. The family members who were adversely affected by her grief, yet still encouraged her to keep moving forward and start to live, were imaginatively, sympathetically and humorously developed.

Anyone who’s lost a loved one or a pet, or anyone who believes or hopes that the veil will occasionally thin to allow us to communicate, is at home in the world that Carey Crim created in Wake. Ms. Mitani’s “hackles” apparently forbade her entrance.