DIGITAL AFTERLIVES

Image: Megan Goldsman

Constructed by: Dr Missy Mooney

Co-Directors: Gaye Poole and Dr Missy Mooney

Producer: Carving in Ice Theatre

The Meteor, 22-24 May 2025

In order to write a review about “a verbatim play about death in a digital age” I need to start at the end. The very end. Actually, beyond the end.

Following the opening night performance of Digital Afterlives, co-directors Gaye Poole and Dr Missy Mooney and the cast sat down for a Q&A. If you ever get the opportunity to attend a theatrical Q&A, one thousand percent do it. It’s a chance to gain valuable insights. Tonight’s Q&A provided clarity and adjusted the terminology I was intending on using in this review (no to characters, yes to participants; no to acting, yes to voicing). Thank you to the entire production for making themselves so freely available after a sold-out opening night performance.  

Digital Afterlives was constructed from interviews that Missy Mooney held over Zoom about emergent digital bereavement practices mainly focussed around Facebook. She delved into rituals of death, tangihanga, the effect of Covid restrictions on grieving, Advanced Care Plans, social media etiquette, and new technological advances in immortalising the dead. Digital Afterlives was presented as a rehearsed staged reading so the actors had scripts to refer to, if needed.

The twelve interview participants were voiced by K-M Adams, Antony Aiono, Julianne Boyle, Kelsie Curtis, Nick Hall, Brad Jackson, Simon McArthur, Cecilia Mooney, Hannah Mooney, Missy Mooney, Kelly Petersen and Sash Rinaldi. All the portrayals were superb, but the standouts of the night were Rinaldi, Curtis, Aiono, and Adams. Hand on heart, I could have sworn they were performing their own words.  

Mooney’s interviews with the participants had been broken into moments that allowed changeovers of the cast, so new configurations continually appeared. With Mooney playing herself as the interviewer, she moved about the stage interacting with each of the interviewees. When the cast were not engaging with Mooney, Poole had directed them into a neutral position so as to not pull focus from the words being spoken.

Conversational in tone, Mooney stated that she was insistent on the “accuracy and fidelity of the words of the interviewees.” She left stutters, misspeaks, and repetitions in the script which the actors, particularly Nick Hall, delivered wonderfully. However, due to the interview nature of the entire piece, there were hundreds of sentences that started with “I think…”. In ninety-five percent of the cases, the removal of those two words would have made the sentences punchier without losing the gist of the thoughts of the participants. Other phrases that occurred often included “I mean”, “like”, “kind of”, and “I guess” but they were peppered amongst sentiments, rather than being an incessant stance marker.

The cast were dressed in various shades of blue. The one trick missed was that Mooney was not wearing the same shirt as shown on her Zoom footage. The setup of two chairs per person was very effective. The lighting was great, and the experienced cast had absolutely no issue with voice projection.

When dealing with sensitive topics such as death, the unknown quantity is how the audience will react. Will people get triggered? Will overwhelming anxiety kick in, and they need to leave? Staging is imperative in such situations to make for an easy egress for those audience members. A central aisle that leads directly to the door is far better than seating blocks arranged side on to a door. Unfortunately, multiple people got up and went to the foyer during the first Act distracting and interrupting the sightlines of those who remained seated. When these escapees returned to their seats after intermission, I realised that they simply didn’t know how to be courteous audience members. However, the well-prepared cast were unflappable during these exits.

Digital Afterlives was a food for thought feast. There were novel approaches in the staging, direction, and the words of the participants. Mooney created an engaging narrative fit for performance from an immense research project. Carving in Ice Theatre has definitely established themselves as the authority in the art of staged readings in the Waikato. Long may it continue.  

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