*Not an actual Book of the Dead
†Not an actual Game Show
About the Play
Plucked from the audience, three contestants live and die their way through a myriad of American incarnations as they compete for the ultimate prize, perfect enlightenment. The entire history of the United States becomes the playing field, from Jamestown to the World Trade Center attack and beyond, as they struggle towards their individual goals. In between lives, the contestants visit the bardo realms, wacky worlds between death and rebirth where Stonewall Jackson and Harriet Tubman are husband and wife; and people reincarnate as corporations. When things seem like they couldn’t get any weirder, as the contestants start to be born as each other and the understanding begins to dawn that enlightenment is now here and nowhere; a trillion light-years and just a blink away.
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Production History
| 2004 | Seattle | Annex Theatre Company |
| 2002 | Los Angeles | Circle X Theatre Company |
Awards and Mentions
“…a dazzling intellectual vaudeville, written with wit and dash, and executed with verve.”
—The LA Weekly
“… so much breadth, wit, and imaginative force, it kicks your ass….”
—The Stranger
“… another world-class collision of combustible talent…. no one but Paul Mullin and Circle X could possibly take you on any better ride.”
—Entertainment Today
“…brilliant stream-of-consciousness writing and a bevy of evocative performances … a paean to rugged individualism.”
— The Seattle Times
“The sheer vitality… is infectious, and the macabre, carnivalesque atmosphere … works to imbue the action with just the right combination of baroque absurdity and frenetic vigor.”
— The Seattle Weekly