Canberra playwright Emily Clark is one of four playwrights chosen by The Street Theatre to participate in their Early Phase 2021 program, which enables her to develop a preliminary idea for a theatre work.

From October through to January 2022, Clark, alongside fellow local playwrights Liam Budge, Farnoush Parsiavashi, and Maura Pierlot, will work through the Early Phase program to investigate, clarify and articulate their ideas.

Collectively, they will share their concept development process and individually work with a coach to prepare to pitch their work to a panel of Australian live theatre producers.

Clark went to The Street with an idea to explore the transitional spaces we occupy before lifechanging events, be they birth or death.

She told Canberra Daily her personal interest in the resonances between birth and death experiences stemmed from a “serious restlessness” she experienced at the end of her pregnancy.

“It was almost torturous to just calmly get on with everyday life not knowing what was coming and where it was going to sit, how it was going to feel, and how it was going to change our lives,” she said.

“My grandmother passed away a bit before I was having a baby, and somehow I sandwiched the two experiences together because I think her having passed made me want to have a baby.”

Those combined experiences led to Clark considering the similarities and life and death.

“After having my daughter, I had a bit of fear, a new kind of fear and reverence for life,” she said. “I was suddenly a nervous driver and previously I’d been someone who drives overseas on the wrong side of the road.”

Prior to starting the Early Phase 2021 program, Clark’s vehicle for investigating her subject matter was through three central female characters: one a death doula, one a woman in her 60s who is dying, and then her daughter, who is pregnant and doing that on her own, therefore needing the support of her mum.

“I’ve got the kernel of this idea and I really want to clarify it,” she said.

“I’m looking forward to working with people I’ve admired for a long time from afar, I’ve got a real reverence for dramaturgs,” she said. “They’re just magnificent story engineers.”

Clark said she still has some more research to do before making any firm calls, part of which includes end-of-life doula training she is undertaking at TAFE.

Through the training, Clark plans to meet and interview a few people who have worked in palliative care in Nowra.

“I want to interrogate what it is to know that you’re dying, what is that? That’s hard, and I don’t think in a creative space we’ve really looked at that,” she said.

“I think there’s a burden on people who are dying to actually almost hide the fact they are dying to protect the living, and that just must be the most isolating, liminal space imaginable.”

Given the heaviness of the subject matter, Clark said she would be sure to include some levity and positivity in the work.

“It’s heavy when you’re looking at writing a play about death, but I’m hoping that it’s offering is more that this can be done better,” she said.

“It can be about connection, about taking stock of life together and feeling like that life is honoured at the end, and that healing can take place rather than this clamped down space where people aren’t allowed to talk about their fears.”

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