“I remember thinking, what difference is there between donating my body to science and donating it to someone who might find pleasure in it when I’m dead.”
Sergio Blanco and Daniel Goldman return to the Arcola Theatre, after the success of their critically acclaimed OFFIE award winning productions of Thebes Land and The Rage of Narcissus, to tell a mesmerising story of love and lust beyond the grave.
This production from one of the world’s most performed living Spanish-language playwrights is a darkly comic meditation on how we live and how we die; the story of a writer who makes the incredible decision to give his body another life after death.
Desire, friendship, and eroticism intertwine in this dazzling new play that asks how far would you go for love? And will the world allow it?
-
Running time
2 hours 10 minutes (including interval) -
Age guidance
15+ -
Content warnings
Praise for the world premiere Spanish language production 'Cuando pases sobre mi tumba' at Edinburgh International Festival
“A must-see triumph! Challenging, stimulating, playful, thrilling, but above all, it defies categorisation.”– The Spy in the Stalls
“Art, at its best, challenges an audience to see the world differently, and When You Pass Over My Tomb achieves this like nothing else I’ve ever seen”– A Young(ish) Perspective
“An ambitious and inventive exploration of death”– Broadway Baby
“Finger-licking, or rather phalanx licking, good”– North West End
“I’m very glad to have seen it and urge lovers of challenging theatre to consider doing the same.”– Salterton Arts Review
Production photos
Rehearsal photos
The Company
-
Al Nedjari
Ghost of Al/Sergio
Al Nedjari
Ghost of Al/Sergio
Al co-founded physical theatre company, Gecko, co-creating and performing internationally in Tailor’s Dummies, The Race and The Arab & The Jew.
His theatre experience also includes: My Brilliant Friend, War Horse and Nation (National Theatre); The Gretchen Question (Master Shipwright’s House); The Scared Flame (ETT); The Flint Street Nativity (Hull Truck); Beasts & Beauties (Hampstead); Stephen’s Berkoff’s Messiah: Scenes from a Crucifixion; Buried Alive (Hampstead); Nativity (Birmingham Rep); Demons and Dybbuks, The Black Dahlia and The Cherry Orchard, for Mike Alfreds’ Method & Madness Ensemble; Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Hammersmith).
He performed in Woody Harrelson’s directorial debut, Lost In London, which was broadcast live to US cinemas whilst being shot on location in London. His film work also includes Kraven The Hunter and The Strays.
TV: Casualty; Bridgerton; Holby City, Berlin Station, The Bill and Coronation Street.
Al was a movement artist on Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning space movie, Gravity.
-
Charlie MacGechan
Ghost of Charlie/Khaled
Charlie MacGechan
Ghost of Charlie/Khaled
Charlie’s recent film & TV credits include: The World Will Tremble, A Bad Day At The Office, Pennyworth (HBO, Warner Brothers), Unforgotten (ITV), The Girl From The Song (Netflix), We Die Young (Netflix), Deus, and Squadron 42 (which hosts an all-star cast, including Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis, Ben Mendelsohn, Liam Cunningham and Mark Strong).
He received a Best Actor nomination at the Mammoth Film Festival for his portrayal of Jester in the Lionsgate film “We Die Young,” and won multiple awards for his performance as Mark in the theatrical production of Harold Pinter’s The Dwarfs (The White Bear Theatre).
Charlie stars alongside Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Anton Lesser in the 2024 feature film The World Will Tremble directed by Emmy and Oscar nominated director Lior Geller.
He also plays opposite John Hannah and Randi Mitchell in the action movie A BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE also scheduled for release in 2024.
-
Danny Scheinmann
Ghost of Danny/Doctor Godwin
Danny Scheinmann
Ghost of Danny/Doctor Godwin
Danny graduated in theatre from the University of Strasbourg, France.
THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: Joy (Straftord East) Playing for Time (Sheffield, Crucible), Slave (The Lowry, Manchester), Adelaide Road (RSC), Play of The Weather (Hampton Court), Ramayana (RNT) Quarantine (Birmingham Rep), The Tale that Wags the Dog (Theatre Royal Plymouth, Lyric Hammersmith), The Jollies (Stephen Joseph Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Improbable for The English Shakespeare Co. National Tour), Rashomon (Yellow Earth, National Tour), A Winter’s Tale (Theatre Royal, Bath), The Tempest (AandBC World Tour), The Hansel Gretel Machine &The Lost Child (David Glass Ensemble, National and World Tours),
FILM INCLUDES: The World Will Tremble (Lior Geller) Entebbe (Jose Padilha), Stan and Ollie (Jon Baird) Endgame (Pete Travis), The Man Who Cried (Sally Potter), Leon The Pig Farmer (Vadim Jean & Gary Sinyor),
TV INCLUDES: Boat Story (BBC), Hapless (Prime), Benidorm (ITV), Ambassadors (Mitchell and Webb, ITV), World Without End (Channel 4), Monty Python – Almost the Truth, Rosemary and Thyme,
Danny is also the author of the best-selling novel ‘Random Acts of Heroic Love’ nominated for the British Book Awards and translated in to 21 languages.
-
Sergio Blanco
Writer
Sergio Blanco
Writer
Franco-Uruguayan playwright and director Sergio Blanco spent his childhood and adolescence in Montevideo and now lives in Paris. After studying classical philology, he decided to devote himself fully to writing and directing. His plays have been awarded several prizes, including the “National Drama Prize of Uruguay”, the “Drama Prize of the City of Montevideo”, the “National Theatre Fund Prize”, the “Florencio Prize for Best Playwright”, the International Prize “Casa de las Americas” and two Off-West End Awards for Thebes Land (Best Production) and The Rage of Narcissus (Best Play) in London. Among his best-known texts are Slaughter, .45’, Kiev, Barbarie, Kassandra, Darwin’s Leap, Thebes Land, Ostia, The Rage of Narcissus, The Bellow of Düsseldorf, When You Pass Over my Tomb, Zoo, Tierra and Traffic. His plays have been published and performed in over twenty-five countries and he is currently the most performed living playwright in the Spanish-speaking world.
-
Daniel Goldman
Adaptor & Director
Daniel Goldman
Adaptor & Director
Daniel Goldman is a multi award winning director, translator, and playwright. He trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris and Andamio 90 Theatre School in Buenos Aires. Selected directing credits include Thebes Land (Off West End Award – Best Production), You’re not like the Other Girls Chrissy (co-directed with Omar Elerian – Olivier Award Nomination), Songs of Friendship: A storytelling trilogy with James Rowland (Three Weeks Editors Award), and The Rage of Narcissus (Off West End Award – Best Play). Selected international credits include Frankenstein in Beijing (Inside Out Theatre, Beijing), Camasca (Teatro Britanico, Peru), Henry V (Cervantino International Festival, Mexico) and Wanawake Wa Heri Wa Windsa (in collaboration with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for their Globe to Globe Festival.) As a writer, Daniel is currently on attachment to the National Theatre and is under commission at Guildford School of Acting. Daniel has been the artistic director of Tangram Theatre Company since 2006 and he was the founding artistic director of CASA Latin American Theatre Festival from 2007 until 2019.
-
Malena Arcucci
Set and Costume Designer
Malena Arcucci
Set and Costume Designer
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Malena Arcucci is a theatre designer and costume supervisor based in London. She is co-artistic director of Mariana Malena Theatre, a female led Latinx company that focused on devise and collaborative theatre practices.
Design credits include: The Wolf, The Duck and The Mouse (Unicorn Theatre), Super Chefs (UK Tour), Strangers Like Me (NT Connect and Hackney Shed), The Bit Players (Southwark Playhouse), Friday Night Love Poem(Zoo Venues); Point of No Return (Summerhall);The Two of Us (Theatre Deli); Playing Latinx (Camden’s People’s Theatre); and various productions in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Associate Designer credits include: Falkland Sound (RSC), Dear Elizabeth(The Gate); Chiaroscuro (Bush Theatre), and Thebes Land (Arcola Theatre).
Costume Supervisor credits include: The Empress (RSC, Lyric Hammersmith), August in England (Bush Theatre), Sucker Punch (Queen’s Theatre), Bootycandy (Gate Theatre), Super High Resolution (Soho Theatre), The Boys are Kissing (Theatre 503), A Blues for an Alabama Sky (As Assistant, National Theatre), The Cherry Orchard (The Yard), Chasing Hares (Young Vic), House of Ife (Bush Theatre), Lotus Beauty (Hampstead Theatre), Moreno (Theatre503); Raya (Hampstead Theatre); and Milk and Gall (Theatre503), amongst others. -
Richard Williamson
Lighting and Video Designer
Richard Williamson
Lighting and Video Designer
Previous work includes: The Olivier award winning Rotterdam (West End/Off-Broadway/UK National Tour); Dogs of Europe (Belarus Free Theatre at the Barbican and international tour); Richard III, An Arab Tragedy (Swan Theatre Stratford/International tour); Sampled and Danse Élargie (Sadler’s Wells); Little Miss Sunshine (Arcola Theatre and UK Tour); Fiddler on the Roof (Istanbul); Beowulf, Septimus Bean and His Amazing Machine, Jason and the Argonauts (Unicorn); Rage of Narcissus (Pleasance); Thebes Land, New Nigerians, Shrapnel, Mare Rider, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Country (Arcola Theatre); England & Son (UK tour); A Political History of Smack and Crack (Edinburgh Fringe and Soho Theatre); The Body (Barbican); The Dark Side of Love (Roundhouse); Amphibians (Bridewell); Thrill Me (Tristan Bates/Charing Cross Theatre/UK and international tour); Twentieth Century Boy (New Wolsey Ispwich); The Al-Hamlet Summit (Tokyo International Festival/International tour);
Richard trained at LAMDA, is a Trustee of the Kings Head Theatre and develops industry leading applications zoomOSC and zoomISO.
-
Hugh Sheehan
Sound Designer
Hugh Sheehan
Sound Designer
Hugh Sheehan is a musician—multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound designer and producer—from Birmingham, now based between Helsinki, Finland and the UK. He holds a BMus (Hons) from RWCMD and an MMus from the Sibelius Academy. He creates music and sound for concert hall, theatre, moving image, and dance projects. His debut album Shapes That Are Different was released in June 2023. Theatre work includes: A Woman Walks Into A Bank (Theatre503), The 4th Country (Park Theatre), SCRATCHES (Arcola Theatre, Camden People’s Theatre, Vault Festival), Mermaid (Theatre503), Pennyroyal (Finborough Theatre), The Hole (The Old Rep).
-
Beth Qualter Buncall
Costume Supervisor
Beth Qualter Buncall
Costume Supervisor
Beth is a freelance costume supervisor, stylist, textiles creative and draper, Beth as a fashion pattern cutter. With a raft of practical experience and innate skill, she intuitively understands the construction of products and can skilfully deconstruct and reconstruct items to create something both beautiful and practical for stage use.
Beth works from her off-grid floating studio on the London canals to create commissioned products such as made-to-measure garments, drapes and textile products. -
Francesca Murray-Fuentes
Associate Director
Francesca Murray-Fuentes
Associate Director
Francesca is a British-Chilean Director and Theatre-Maker. She was recognised in ‘The Stage 100’ in 2021 for her contributions to the industry during the pandemic, and her play ‘The Runner’ was nominated for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award. She has been resident director at Leeds Playhouse and Oxford Playhouse, and has been Associate/ Assistant Director for Chichester Festival Theatre, Royal and Derngate, Bath Theatre Royal, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Red Ladder, Barbican, Wessex Grove and Neal Street Productions. She trained on the MFA in Theatre Directing at Birkbeck.
Selected credits as Director: Frida (Northern Opera Group); Alice In Wonderland (Theatre on Kew); Love In the Time of Corona (Jermyn Street Theatre -also as writer); Doggerland, Silent Statues (National Youth Theatre); Dance Protest (Bunker Theatre); La Llorona (Dance City); King Lear (Rose Bruford); Ref! (Space2); The Runner (Theatre Deli, Oxford Playhouse, Edinburgh Fringe). -
Josephine Tremelling
Production Manager
Josephine Tremelling
Production Manager
Josephine is a Production Manager, lighting designer and theatre maker.
Josephine studied at Dartington College of arts obtaining a BA Hons in Contemporary Theatre before working as a drama facilitator and Co-Founding inclusive Theatre Company Anyone Everyone and Cabaret troupes The Thrill Billies and The Salacious Sirens.
Josephine took the role of technician and later of Production Manager at the Pleasance Theatre for a few glorious years before going freelance both as a PM and Lighting Designer.
Her current projects include National and international tours with Ephemeral Ensemble, Theatre Re, Tangled Feet and The Little Ángel Theatre.
Recent PM projects include We Started to Sing, Possession and Sputnik Sweetheart at the Arcola and Hamlet with the National Theatre, STARS with Tamasha Theatre and Strategic Love Play with Paines Plough. -
Alex Jaouen
Stage Manager
Alex Jaouen
Stage Manager
Alex trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and is originally from Hong Kong. His most recent work includes being part of the original West End company of Death Note, premiering at the London Colosseum and transferring to the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, as Assistant Stage Manager.
As Stage Manager on Book, Alex has led productions at the Arcola Theatre, King’s Head Theatre, Theatre503, Seven Dials Playhouse and the Tramshed Theatre. As an Assistant Stage Manager, he has been part of teams at the Kiln Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Opera Holland Park and the Park Theatre.
Coming from a multicultural and multilingual background, Alex is deeply passionate about representing the ESEA community in theatres across London.