Not­ed Welling­ton improv troupe Best on Tap is back per­form­ing this month with a new iter­a­tion of their ground­ed and clever improv in a show using your music sug­ges­tions! Music To Die For takes six songs that you (the audi­ence) would play at your funer­al and uses them to inspire lay­ered, com­plex scenes about the life of the one per­son who would have those six songs at their funer­al.

On open­ing night, we’re wel­comed in by the Funer­al Cel­e­brant (Bar­ry Miskim­min), who intro­duces us to Anna Lucy Edwards (Nico­la Paul­ing). She’s an adven­tur­er, spir­it­ed, and takes no shit. With the first song, Glo­ria Gayn­er’s “I Will Sur­vive”, we fall into moments of Anna’s life — get­ting her own room, learn­ing (in grue­some detail) about how she was born, and many more.

The show unfolds, draw­ing more and more upon the audi­ence-cho­sen songs for inspi­ra­tion. A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?” turns Anna into a pre­mier-league foot­baller, Joan Jett & The Black­heart­s’s “Bad Rep­u­ta­tion” tells us the tale of how Anna’s par­ents (played by Kate Whit­tak­er and Geoff Sim­mons) break up, and Leonard Cohen’s “So Long, Mar­i­anne” brings us into the final scenes of the play, where Anna and her hus­band (Tim Croft) have a baby, and the whole fam­i­ly finds them­selves togeth­er again — at least, most­ly, with Becky (Clare Ker­ri­son) — Anna’s sis­ter — on a Skype call from prison. Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind” is the back­drop for a final series of “pho­tos” — the actors frozen on stage in var­i­ous moments of Anna’s life.

Best on Tap focuss­es on truth-based sto­ry­telling in their shows, and it’s at its very best here. While there are obvi­ous­ly a few leaps in log­ic, there’s always this excel­lent ground­ed qual­i­ty in Best on Tap’s work which is deeply endear­ing: see­ing real peo­ple make real human con­nec­tions on stage, in a way that might be fun­ny but isn’t goofy, with a hint of the melan­cholic.

Dis­cussing death on stage isn’t easy, but Best on Tap tru­ly hits the right bal­ance — approach­ing death via a cel­e­bra­tion of life. Best on Tap shows are always wel­com­ing, always kind and always a bit sil­ly, but that’s what makes me adore them, cause you always know what boat you’re on. The skill of the impro­vis­ers is what makes these shows what they are, with such truth in their words, and espe­cial­ly the vis­i­ble trust between them: over a cen­tu­ry’s worth of expe­ri­ence, or so their web­site says. Under­scored by Matt Hut­ton on the keys and D’ Woods as their oper­a­tor, the room takes on a kind of inti­ma­cy — today myself and a bunch of strangers real­ly are here to cel­e­brate Anna’s life.

When asked what song I’d play at my funer­al, I don’t know. I scroll through my phone look­ing for some­thing with appro­pri­ate grav­i­tas, read through lyrics online, won­der if it’s the tone or the words that mat­ter most. Final­ly, I set­tle on some­thing that does­n’t feel quite right — but in the end, I won’t be there to see it. Though, I’m almost thank­ful I was asked.

Music to Die For is on at Te Aua­ha until Sat­ur­day. Tick­ets here.