Keeping up with Jake in March

Greetings from Canada! I’m here at The Cultch in East Vancouver performing Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream.

You may or may not know that Paradise was partly inspired by the book The Denial of Death, by cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker. What I didn’t know was that Becker lived and taught near Vancouver. Sadly, he died of colon cancer at the age of 49, shortly after his book was published, not living to receive the Pulitzer Prize awarded to him in 1974.

Now, you can imagine my surprise when I received an email from the theatre saying that Marie Becker, Ernest Becker’s widow, would like to meet Indian Ink to say thank you. This year marks the 50th anniversary of The Denial of Death and Marie was delighted that this little theatre company from New Zealand had written a play inspired by her late husband’s work.

She saw the play last night and I met her and her dog, Babette, this morning. Both were lovely. Marie gave me a copy of “Escape from Evil”, a book she had collated from her husband’s writings after his death, along with a hand-written note on a beautiful card of one of her paintings (she’s an artist).

We were supposed to have a cup of tea together but the café was closed so we just sat in the sun and talked about life, art, New Zealand (she’s been to Reporoa!) and the play. I left feeling strangely moved.

They say don’t meet your heroes but I’d highly recommend meeting their wives.

 

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