Writers are a very strange bunch. Often, they will write about the most difficult, painful subjects. Perhaps they believe this is where the most important truths and valuable rewards lie?! Whatever their motivation, one has to admire their audacity and courage.

As dark, painful subjects go, prolific playwright and performer Margie Fischer has traveled well up the mountain with her solo piece, THE DEAD ONES. The day that her mother died Fischer  commenced a journal, knowing that this was a landmark time in her life, and the time when she would have to clear out her family home in order to get it ready for auction.

The feelings and thoughts that welled up within her as she went through this difficult process gave her the material for the play. Add to this a collage of mainly family photographs projected onto a screen and some background music and we have, THE DEAD ONES.

Reading from her notes at the lectern to the side of the stage and screen, with her voice sometimes quavering with emotion, Fischer shared this very personal journey. It’s a journey which sees her go through her family home, room by room, and also sees her explore the broader picture, of the story of her family’s devastation as Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and immigrants to a new country.

Margie takes us through her late brother’s bedroom…Peter died tragically young at 23 of spinal cancer…her father’s office with its mountain of books and his love of mountaineering…and her mother’s kitchen and her love of cooking.

How did I find the play?! Very articulate and touching. What was most appreciated was the way that she hung in there and allowed herself to feel her feelings when many of us would just find it too close and confronting, and want to get over and done with as quickly as possible. Her her openness and humanness was also very appealing…that, at times, she  disposed of objects and possessions, simply because it had just become too much, too difficult.

Perhaps the show will inspire myself, and others in the  audience, who haven’t as yet had to go through this journey, to take the time needed to properly complete the task, on as personal, emotional level as well as a practical level, when our time comes, as it inevitably will, in the great cycle of life.

THE DEAD ONES only has a short season, only playing till Saturday night at the Seymour Centre Sound Lounge. Try and catch it. It is well worth a visit.