New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer

Images Inspiration from Film and Literature Research

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer

Images Inspiration from Film and Literature Research

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer Images

A COLLAGE OF INSPIRING IMAGES

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer Images

THE EMBALMING TABLE This strikes myself as a visual metaphor as an altar where Tyler's ritualistic actions commence. It's a sacred object to him as each one of his art pieces (p.14), are brought before him. This is also the place where he falls in love with Cynthia.

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer ETRUSCAN VASE Imageswere used for domestic purposes, for sacrifices, marriages, presents at divers periods of the year, and especially for funerals. When the body of the deceased person had been placed in the tomb, his relations and friends walked around it in succession, each carrying in his hand a little vase full of essence, with which he sprinkled the corpse, and which he afterwards placed in the tomb by the side of the dead. http://sacred-texts.com/sex/rmn/rmn57.htm This metaphorical image represents Dr. West's deceased daughter, Victoria. One similar to the one shown here was given to him as a gift from her.

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer ImagesPRISON CELL I envision a small cramped, gloomy prison cell in which Dr. West is placed in at the end of the play. A visual metaphor to symbolize how this once respected man has vanished (p.7) and in his place a dark and lonesome soul resides. The notion of West being locked away also locks away the secret he keeps from his wife as to what is said between Tyler and himself that caused him to spiral into madness.

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer

Images Inspiration from Film and Literature Research

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer Inspiration from Film and LiteratureGOTHIC FICTION a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses, Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, madness, secrets, and hereditary curses. Examples include: Dracula by Bram Stoker Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_novel Features in The Embalmer include: The romance between Tyler and Cynthia The Etruscan Vase Dr. West's spiral into madness The death and decay surrounding the play The elements of psychological terror and many more...

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer Inspiration from Film and Literature

THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT Based on the true story of a family forced to relocate near a clinic where their teenage son was being treated for cancer. The family begins experiencing violent, supernatural events that the parents first blame on stress from the illness, but they later discover that their new home is a former mortuary with a dark past. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492044/ The core action of this film takes place in the basement where the ill son's bedroom is located. In the basement is the once embalming room. It's used a metaphorical image as the gateway of the spirits haunting the house as horrific events occurred in there.

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer Inspiration from Film and LiteratureTHE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS A young FBI cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/ The psychological tug-of-war between the film's Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling parallel that of Tyler and Dr. West. One tries to get ahead of another in this battle of wits to gain control of their opponent. The media coverage of the killer Buffalo Bill is another element similar in The Embalmer (p. 21-22). The media's impact and influence is something I would like to further explore with this play.

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer

Images Inspiration from Film and Literature Research

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer ResearchEMBALMING in most modern cultures, is the art and science of temporarily preserving human remains to forestall decomposition and to make them suitable for display at a funeral. The three goals of embalming are thus sanitization, presentation, and preservation (or restoration) of a dead body to achieve this effect. An embalmer is someone who has been trained in the art and science of embalming and may not have any contact with the family, although many people fill both roles. Embalming training commonly involves formal study in anatomy, thanatology, chemistry, and specific embalming theory combined with practical instruction in a mortuary with a resultant formal qualification granted after the passing of a final practical examination and acceptance into a recognized embalming body. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embalming

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer ResearchEMBALMING ROOM The embalming room has a distinctive smell. Fourmal-dee-hyde. As you can see the room has two tables, one of the old school variety, presumably metal with a white finish (shown with a sheet on it), the other more modern, cold shiny steel. Theyre slightly inclined, with tubes running the output into toilets. Cost effective, I presume. At the foot of each one, on the counter top, was an embalming machine, nice pink hose wrapped up around the tank. Electrical plugs hang from the ceilings - I didnt inquire as to their use. As creepy and smelly as it was, it was impeccably clean.

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer ResearchNECROPHILIA is the sexual attraction to corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. Rosman and Resnick (1989) theorized that any the following situations could be antecedents to necrophilia: (a) He/she is very fearful of rejection by women/men and he/she desires a sexual partner who is incapable of rejecting him/her; and/or (b) He/she is fearful of the dead, and transforms his/her fear by means of reaction formation into a desire. (c)He/she develops an exciting fantasy of sex with a corpse, sometimes after exposure to a corpse.

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer ResearchNECROPHILIA cont. The authors also reported that, of their sample of 'necrophiliacs,': 68 percent were motivated by a desire for an unresisting and unrejecting partner 21 percent by a want for reunion with a lost partner 15 percent by sexual attraction to dead people 15 percent by a desire for comfort or to overcome feelings of isolation 11 percent by a desire to remedy low self-esteem by expressing power over a corpse. At the end of their own report, Rosman and Resnick wrote that their study should only be used like a spring-board for further, more in depth, research. Minor modern researches conducted in England have shown that some necrophiles tend to choose a dead mate after failing to create romantic attachments with the living. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrophilia

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer ResearchPSYCHOPATHY is a psychological construct that describes chronic immoral and antisocial behavior. The term is often used interchangeably with sociopathy. The term "psychopathy" is often confused with psychotic disorders. It is estimated that approximately one percent of the general population are psychopaths. The psychopath is defined by a psychological gratification in criminal, sexual, or aggressive impulses and the inability to learn from past mistakes. Individuals with this disorder gain satisfaction through their antisocial behavior and lack remorse for their actions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy

New Works/New Voices Festival The Embalmer

Images Inspiration from Film and Literature Research