Is there talk after death?

Press, 24 October 1980, Page 11

Is there talk after death?

r—— Radio

Heath Lees

You would have been forgiven last Monday evening if you thought the elastic in your waveband had burst. The reason why the Concert programme kept sounding like a local radio station was because Grant Morris was having his play, “Deathline,” broadcast. The play took the form of a talkback radio show which was offering a Serious and Concerned Look at the subject of death. At the start, the only real difference between the play and the real thing was the absence of a phone number — just as well really, or the switchboard would probably have been jammed with serious callers wondering what was going on, and ready as usual to have their say. Morris neatly captured the contrived hearty involvement that talkback shows aspire to, and the host, who rejoiced in the name of Arch Young, was often to be heard producing the two main reactive noises of talkback hosts everywhere. For those who don’t know, they are “AH ” which means “I’m glad you got to that point because it’s one I have prepared” nd “UhHUH ” which means “I hope you listeners realise the profound significance of what he/she/they/I have just said.” ' , One of the funniest and most ironic aspects of the play was the loyal portrayal of the talkback forum, with its. declared determination to L strip away society’s myths, while in the commercial breaks the adverts were equally determined to' restore these same myths and exploit them mercilessly. The cut-price funeral firm described itself in hushed, reverent tones as > ‘‘The Frddie Laker of the graveside,” offering all the frills at half the cost. “Whv . sink your cash into a hole in the ground?” they asked. Against such a back-? ground the pretentious absurdity of the studio guests came over loud and clear. Yet, given the format of the talkback show, it was astonishing how believable the nonsense appeared.- Dr Howard Stapleton, the lecher (sic) in sociology had the typical nasal intensity of the Seminar Superstar,

preaching the evils of society as though ■ he didn’t belong to it. “Society teaches you that gain is good and loss is bad. Death is loss, therefore death is bad. This is wrong.” It didn’t sound wrong until you examined the words “good” and “bad,” but he usually went too fast for that.

Vic Trotter, the founder of the Movement for the Understanding of Death and Everything Related — M.U.R.D.E.R. — was given some of the blackest jokes. Spouting jargon from every pore, he took up what he called a prodeath position, though he called death “life-ex-tinction” (to make it more positive you see). By the end of the play this character had been put on trial by his erstwhile acquaintances who kept on phoni g in to denounce him. Arch Young, the host, began to sou d like David Frost here, and you couldn’t be sure whether this was. intentional or not —• maybe all publi: persecutors sound lik£ David Frost when they are going about their vaguely lawful business. ■ ; The main weakness of this play;,— and indeed of the last Morris play about religion: — was that there were too many subjects of satire; you felt in the end that there was no clear object bf ridicule. It wasn’t jiist the talkback scene, or isociety’s view of death, or hypocrisy; or the bumbling .policeman or the bent lawyer ... gradually everything within reach was lampooned, and the play lost much of its bite. The climax, a suicide on the telephone, was predictable, and some of the characters, e.g. the token woman G.P., became simply an excuse for more jokes on more subjects. A pity really, fog the start was very funny.- The play didn’t really, die, it just faded away.-