I’m always drawn towards quite bleak or dark concepts when writing, and a lot of it is mostly from the films I watch and the books that I read. However, my current concept has a stranger origin. Before University I used to frequently visit the cinema in Ashford, Kent, and as it was an hours’ walk, I used to make a day out of it. On the way, I always used to pass a small cemetery, with a small refurbished chapel inside the cemetery itself that had become a house and was up for sale when I noticed it.  I knew that, because of the small surrounding area, the man who lived within the grounds also acted as both the groundskeeper and director of funerals (it was why he ended up living there for work reasons) and that apparently even some of the wakes were held within his home after the ceremonies themselves. I started thinking about the person who would live in the cemetery itself and how they’d operate the place, the type of people they’d meet.

The idea of Death himself playing a role is something I’ve wanted to do for a while now, so I came up with the idea of an elderly, widowed man living and operating the cemetery and being greeted by Death as a common occurrence (he would of course be a kind of employer). As much as I love this new concept, I’m a little worried about using it for work when it’s something I’d enjoy so much working on that I’d rather it be a free-time thing, but I digress.

There are clear elements of Neil Gaiman’s novel ‘The Graveyard Book’ within the idea too, and my hope is to keep the concept strong throughout and have the short act more like a ‘slice of life’ drama with some small, light comical dialogue thrown in, perhaps not even telling the audience that this person visiting the old man is Death himself.