Kiss in After-Plague, part of Grimfest, Drayton Arms Theatre 25 & 26 October 2026

'Twisted love and gothic verse in the plague pits' ★★

Plague. Pestilence. Disease. Death. We are in the 1600s, the black death rages and bodies pile high. It’s the job of the body collector to deliver the dead to the plague pits and there are plenty of those to keep him busy. Our narrator is Affliction AKA The Grim Maker (Catherine Luff) a deity and story teller who wafts around in black lipstick and a muslin gown imparting truths and stories from a book.

When the Flesh Taker (Glaswegian and autistic performer, Ross Barbour) requests a story, she tells him about Mortalia (Iona Cabal-Sutherland), the beautiful daughter of a holy man and a body collector - much like himself. Corvin (a grounded performance from Miroe Fuches) falls in love with Mortalia and their stolen kisses lead her to contract the Black Death. But when did a small thing like death ever get in the way of true love and erotic attraction?

With ‘necrophilia’ in the trigger warning, this is not your typical love story; it’s Romeo & Juliette as a staged snuff movie. Hats off to Cunning Moss Productions and writer Anayis N.Der Hakopian, who’s come up with such a brave and dark setting for this gothic romance. The evocative set lit by candles and atmospheric costumes by Hannah Danson work well. Although our dirt-smeared body collector doesn’t have the mask and beak we associate with body collectors, he has raven feathers attached to his dark attire.

The entire 55-minute piece is told in Shakespearean-style verse. This is the stand out feature of the ambitious piece. It has a certain lyricism but is also challenging. Meanings are sometimes obtuse and unclear or spoken too quickly, Visible blocks of highlighter pen in the ‘book of stories’ break the spell of the audience being in another world and the words coming from an arcane source.

While there are four performers on stage throughout the piece, the first half is dominated by Pestilence and Affliction in a wordy duologue. Mortalia finally speaks after 25 minutes and this character is obedient and passive before her own demise and subsequent abuse. One can imagine this piece might work well as written prose but despite its shocking subject, theatrically, it struggles to ignite or make the most of the medium. 

There is something visually strong and socially relevant about an inert, powerless woman being used by a man. It makes us think of Gisèle Pelicot, date rape and the exploitation of women by men as a source of status and popularity online. Kiss In After-Plague also has echoes of our own pandemic experience, social distancing and the forbidding of touch. There is certainly much to develop in this original gothic verse play about love in the plague pits.

Kiss in After-Plague

Written and directed by Anayis N.Der Hakopian

part of Grimfest 2026

Drayton Arms Theatre