Buddy's Gift

Stand-up comic Jack Simmons turns serious in this monologue about the mystery of death, though he does try to lighten the subject with little sprinkles of humor. His approach is strictly personal: the Buddy in question is his late father, patriarch of a large Irish-Catholic family, who was diagnosed with incurable liver cancer in his late fifties. Since the family knew death was imminent, it had time to gather `round Buddy and try and ease his passage to "the other side." Saying a final farewell is never easy, but to Buddy's credit, he managed the transition without ever losing his irreverence or wit. Such was Buddy's magnetism and life-force that Simmons and his kin felt his presence even after death, a feeling that was reinforced when they went to psychic John Edward for a seance, in which Buddy managed to communicate with them in various ways. It is easy to be skeptical about such life-after-death episodes, but as Simmons says, "even if you don't believe in them, I do."

The proof is in the warm, sincere way he tells his story, avoiding the didactic shrillness of the ideologue, eschewing sentimentality as much as possible. The play is more confessional than theatrical, though there are a few strong dramatics in the course of the monologue, especially when Simmons describes the moment of his father's death and follows it up with a brief but achingly beautiful dirge on his harmonica.

Buddy's Gift may be a dubious commercial vehicle, but there is no denying its heartfelt emotion and power.