A writer sits at a table crowded with used mugs, pondering how to kill off his character, David. The only thing that's certain is that death is taxing.
It has to be a poetic ending, fictional David is himself a successful author. Perhaps a Hemingway inspired "self inflicted gun shot wound"? This is going to take more than tea.
Luckily his cyclist friend is more than happy to plunder the writer's stash of wine and attempt to refresh his imagination. A lack of clean glasses is overcome by drinking from the botte - well it's glass.
Such mundane problems solved, they discuss unlikely, fantastical ends and over a glass of whisky, the "water of life", how they themselves would prefer to die. It seems that they need not worry as Death comes a calling.
The Edgar Allan Poe quoting Grim Reaper has an everyday job to do but even death can take a holiday (although it results in a shit-load of paperwork). There is unfinished business he has an idea of what he wants to do with David. After all, who wants to live for ever?
This is the first show for 325 Productions and it's a reasonable attempt. The idea of allowing the personified death a romantic side is not original (think "Death Takes a Holiday", remade as "Meet Joe Black"), but his character is written and played with a certain poignant fragility.
The narrative is less than clear however, it's literally a play in two halves and there are too many dead ends, underlying themes and references to pop culture, which the audience is left to guess at.
Perhaps there is more Poe in there (including drinking and dead wives), as he believed that meaning in prose should be an undercurrent, just beneath the surface.
Show times
19 to 26 August 2013, 2.35 pm.
Ticket prices
£7 (£5)