Have you ever thought about death? Death is something that brings fear to many people. Since no one living has ever experienced death. Imagine that there is no one around you when you die. It would be very lonely and sad. <Dead Man's Cell Phone> tells the story of a woman intervening in the life of a man who is dying alone. This performance is prepared by students from the School of Performing Arts and Media, College of Arts, Chung-Ang University as a spring performance. Let's take a closer look at this performance with CAH.

Characters

Jean: She has a bright and cheerful personality, and when she meets a poor person, she can't just let him/her go. She was the first person to find Gordon dead.

Gordon: He has an authoritative, blunt personality, and faces a sudden death at a cafe due to cardiac arrest. During his lifetime, he was an organ trafficking dealer.

Dwight: Gordon's younger brother who falls in love with Jean. He hopes his dead brother's cell phone will no longer ring.

Mrs. Gottlieb: She is over-sensitive because of the sudden death of her son. She said she would mourn her dead son until she dies.

Hermia: Gordon’s widow. Her marriage with Gordon was not smooth because she didn't truly love him. She had to quit figure skating because Gordon didn't want her to continue.

Stranger Woman: Gordon's partner in organ trafficking.

Synopsis

The female protagonist Jean has nice guy syndrome. One day, she visited a cafe. At the cafe, a man does not answer his cell phone that keeps ringing, so she approaches him. The man is Gordon, the male protagonist. Even if Jean talks to Gordon and touches him, Gordon doesn't move. Eventually, Jean realizes that Gordon died of cardiac arrest. Unable to ignore Gordon's cell phone, she answers his phone. Even after she finishes this phone call, she then decides to keep the cell phone for herself. Since Jean kept answering his phone calls, she feels compassion for Gordon, and the friends and family he left behind. She gives comfort and mercy to Gordon’s acquaintances with white lies, and gradually intervenes deeply in Gordon's life.

Between Disconnection and Communication

Cell phones are indispensable items for modern people. We always use our cell phones at home, at work, listening to music, etc. Cell phones have two aspects: communication and disconnection. With our cell phones, we can easily contact people far away. However, the longer each person spends time focusing on their cell phones, the less they have face-to-face conversations with close people. In the play <Dead Man's Cell Phone>, mobile phones show both disconnection and communication. Gordon was not on good terms with his family due to a lack of communication with them during his lifetime. Therefore, just before he died, he was confused about whether to call his family or not, and eventually died alone. And the first thing that cried for him was his cell phone, which shows his disconnection with ‘real’ people. On the other hand, mobile phones also serve as a medium for communication. Even though Gordon is dead, it feels like he hasn't completely passed away because his cell phone remains in the world. In addition, Jean will be able to communicate with the living people related to him through the cell phone. Jean can meet Gordon's family through his cell phone and falls in love with Gordon's younger brother, Dwight. Thus, mobile phones are a means of prolonging Gordon's life in the play and making Gordon's death even more lonely.

Nice Guy Syndrome

Jean's nice guy syndrome is one of the interesting factors leading the story of <Dead Man's Cell Phone.> Nice guy syndrome acts as a positive factor in the play. Jean feels sorry for the death of a stranger she saw for the first time in her life. She tries to connect Gordon and the people who he left behind. She finds out that Gordon had a bad relationship with his family during his lifetime. Although Gordon is dead, Jean tells a white lie so that Gordon's family can remember him as a good person. At the time of his life, Gordon didn't like his mother's cooking. However, Jean says Gordon liked his mother's cooking and she presents a knife to Mrs. Gottlieb. Jean presents a cup to his younger brother, who was awkward with Gordon, saying Gordon cared for his younger brother a lot. Also, Jean presents salt to Hermia, who was not happy with her marriage to Gordon, and made a white lie that Gordon said, "Be an indispensable person like salt." All of these gifts were prepared by Jean, and none of what Jean told Gordon’s family was true. However, her white lies comfort the family who was sad about Gordon's death. They accept that Gordon was not an affectionate and indifferent person. Jean had hoped that Gordon would also want to communicate with his family. Jean, who wants to improve the reputation of a stranger who has already died, seems reckless, but her goodness makes the play more dramatic.

The play "Dead Man's Cell Phone" showed communication between the dead and the living. It is interesting that the means of communication is the cell phone of the dead, and that there is a person who voluntarily took charge of the cell phone and claimed to be an agent. Jean's actions may seem nosy, but her compassion for the dead has become warm comfort and hope for those left in the world. However, it may feel paradoxical that people communicate through mobile phones, not through in-person communication. In modern society, communication may be very inconvenient without a cell phone. However, it is better to communicate person-to-person, not with a cell phone. The play "Dead Man's Cell Phone," presented by students majoring in theater at Chung-Ang University, allows us to look back on our relationships with people around us in our lives.

Dates: 2022.02.11~2022.02.13

Running Time: 80 minutes

Place: Chung-Ang University Space 1959