I mentioned last week that Older Brother, Little Brother and I were taking part in a local Community Opera, a modernised version of the 15th Century morality play, Everyman. It was a fantastic experience – a very intense, exhilarating week of rehearsals followed by the performances on Friday and Saturday. So many people of all ages were involved (from 5 to, well, not quite 105!), with all levels of expertise and experience. When I can track down some photos, I’ll link to them – especially of the puppets of God and Death – believe me, they were enormous and scary!

The soothsayers, who provide a sort of choric prelude to the piece and later warn Everyman to make the right choices going forward, were two rappers who have been working with a vibrant local youth project called Connecting Youth Culture. It was amazing to watch these guys arrive at the beginning of the week, absorb what Everyman is all about and then write their raps, ready to perform almost then and there. And perform they did! I am really grateful to James Koppert and Sam Taylor for giving me permission to reproduce a selection of their raps here to share with you.

The first is an extract from what follows just after Death has told Everyman to “See thou make thee ready shortly.”

Face with eyes open, past is now awoken.
No going back, as God and Death have spoken.
[...]
Now listen, Everyman, you need to sort this out.
Quit your running, find courage and face this now -
No more hide and seek ‘cos God will not rest
So either find support or find the cold touch of death.
You say you’ve (more…)

At the moment Older Brother, Little Brother and I are in the middle of an intense week of rehearsals for the Ryedale Festival’s Community Opera (in North Yorkshire, UK) – this year’s production is a modernised version of the 15th Century English morality play Everyman by Em Whitfield Brookes and Tim Brookes. In a nutshell, it is about Death sent by God to summon Everyman, who is not at all ready, spiritually, to meet his Maker.

This therefore seemed to be the right time to read together Wolf Erlbruch’s extraordinary picture-book Duck, Death and the Tulip (Gecko Press, 2008) – and the book’s translator, Catherine Chidgey, deserves a special mention too! It might seem strange to describe a book about death as beautiful but then, as I have just said, this is an extraordinary book. As Death slips Duck’s lifeless body into “the great river” at the end, the reader is filled with a deep sense of peace, as well as a rueful recognition of the truth of Death’s final thought: “But that’s life” – and perhaps what this story gets across particularly poignantly, but totally matter-of-factly, is that where there is life, death is inevitable. Duck is definitely horrified (and frightened) to discover at the beginning that Death is stalking her. Who wouldn’t be? Then a surprising thing happens – Duck starts to make friends with Death. What follows includes some exquisite moments, such as where Death gets cold when Duck takes him off to the pond for a swim -

‘Are you cold?’ Duck asked. ‘Shall I warm you a little?’
Nobody had ever offered to do that for Death.

Duck’s musings offer much food for thought: all the time she is preparing herself for the fact that sometime soon, she’s not sure exactly when, she will die. Erlbruch’s writing is deft in expressing the tension between loving life and preparing to let go of it. His artwork is haunting too and Duck, Death and the Tulip is a worthy follow-up to Erlbruch’s 2006 Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration.

A caveat, though: straightforward as it appears, Duck, Death and the Tulip raises complex ideas, which need to be given discussion space. This, however, may be as much to reassure adults that the book has indeed conveyed its life-affirming core, as to clarify any misunderstandings on the part of children. It would be a good choice of story to talk about the death from old age of a loved one – though not when grief is raw. Our context was Everyman. Erlbruch’s cultural heritage includes Schubert’s Death and the Maiden. What stories do you have in your culture which link Life and Death?