The opening quote to Farah Najib’s drama tells us that “living well and dying well is a community affair”. What are the implications for a community when a woman lies dead in her home for more than a year without being discovered? All the signs are there, from the slowly seeping stench in the hallway to the maggots emerging in the homes of her neighbours.
Questions of responsibility and culpability, both individual and systemic, are raised in Najib’s play. Its central, sad scenario is not as far-fetched as it may sound: the deceased, Shirley, is fictional but the play takes inspiration from the real, lonely deaths of several women listed at the beginning of the script, including Sheila Seleoane who lay dead for more than two years before she was discovered.
