# Trying to remember title of short play about passengers on a bus that turns out to be death **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** theater-stage-dance\ **Created:** [January 13, 2024, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036 "2024-01-13T09:18:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/1 "2024-01-13T09:18:19Z")
Long ago, during freshman year of high school, I took a drama class. We broke into groups, each being assigned a short play to perform. My group did A Visit _To A Small Planet_, and in fact I think all the plays had originally been performed on 1950s anthology programs such as Playhouse 90. Another group was assigned a play that I’m trying to find some information on, but I don’t remember the title, or much else. All I do remember is the basic premise: some passengers get on a bus, and it turns out that their all dead, being transported to the afterlife, and the driver is possibly some Charon like figure. The last line ends with, “This bus is death.” ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/2 "2024-01-13T22:14:48Z")
This sounds a lot like _Outward Bound_ (1923) - filmed in 1930, remade as _Between Two Worlds_ in 1944 - but it takes place on an ocean liner and “This ship is death” is not the last line. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/3 "2024-01-13T22:23:33Z")
There’s a similar plot to the “Lights Out” radio mystery by Arch Obeler, titled [“Bon Voyage”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAsPkIxeRaA). It’s about two elderly ladies who board a cruise ship that appears strangely deserted, except for an infernal captain and an unthinkable destination. ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/4 "2024-01-14T00:54:58Z")
The trope’s not unique, of course – there was an old Twilight Zone about a train to Providence (one is misled to thinking the city in Rhode Island) that is in fact Purgatory. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/5 "2024-01-14T01:17:21Z")
One of two short stories that are my favorites is Heinlein’s _The Man Who Traveled in Elephants"_. There’s a bus accident at the start of the story that set’s up a scene like this. And every time the story gets to the part about veterans riding in the big parade “Because merciful heaven forgive us, they could not walk” I get teary eyed at that. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/6 "2024-01-14T01:27:44Z")
> [@Quondam\_Mechanic](#): > > The trope’s not unique, of course – there was an old Twilight Zone about a train to Providence (one is misled to thinking the city in Rhode Island) that is in fact Purgatory. Heck, Bruce Jay Friedman put the whole thing in a steambath. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/7 "2024-01-14T01:53:02Z")
The expression “catch the bus” became widespread online slang for suicide. The only explanation I’ve seen is that it’s a reference to walking in front of a bus to kill yourself. That never made any sense to me - a bus hitting you is if anything an archetype of sudden unexpected _accidental_ death in a YOLO context - “Don’t forego this fabulous dessert, you might get hit by a bus tomorrow!” But it’s surely not a common means of suicide. And why “catch”? So I’m wondering if there may be some link to this play, if it was once well known. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/8 "2024-01-14T02:15:57Z")
I did always read “catch the bus” as stepping out in front of one…. we do sometimes like our catchy euphemisms when it comes to death. But based on some random posts I just read, it supposedly arose at alt.suicide.holiday, and it means you’re standing at the bus stop thinking about whether or not you’re going to end your life/“get on the bus“. I did delete the link to some of those sources, because the content is pretty dark. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/9 "2024-01-14T03:01:22Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > it means you’re standing at the bus stop thinking about whether or not you’re going to end your life/“get on the bus“ But that’s just stating the metaphor, not an explanation for _why_ it’s a metaphor. There is perhaps a sense of waiting wondering if you’re going to act, but as a metaphor waiting at a bus stop doesn’t fit with that - it’s not as though people wait at a bus stop watching buses go past until they finally decide it’s time to catch one. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/10 "2024-01-14T03:35:46Z")
The metaphor of death being a _ride_ from one place to another is obviously ancient. The boat metaphor was already taken. A bus serves as a modern update on the idea. Why a bus and not something else? I dunno, but there are only so many possibilities, and the phrase “catch the bus” is in common use and relatively snappy sounding. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/11 "2024-01-14T05:12:20Z")
They had this at the end of _The Ballad of Buster Scruggs_, but I do not know what original material it may have been based on (as @Dr.Strangelove reminds us, it is not exactly novel). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/12 "2024-01-14T17:58:12Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > The only explanation I’ve seen is that it’s a reference to walking in front of a bus to kill yourself. That never made any sense to me - a bus hitting you is if anything an archetype of sudden unexpected _accidental_ death Your life insurance will pay out because they can’t prove suicide. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/13 "2024-01-14T21:45:14Z")
I don’t remember this. Was it in the original 1959 series or one of the later ones? ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/14 "2024-01-15T01:03:51Z")
The original, if I’m remembering correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/15 "2024-01-15T15:50:24Z")
If you can afford to buy a farm, why would you need to take a bus? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/16 "2024-01-15T15:51:15Z")
What if you happen to have a bucket handy? ---
**Author:** ![frognot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frognot/32/8752_2.png) [@frognot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frognot)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/17 "2024-01-15T23:44:54Z")
C.S. Lewis’ “The Great Divorce” tells the story of a bus full of passengers who find they are departing Hell and are bound for Heaven. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-remember-title-of-short-play-about-passengers-on-a-bus-that-turns-out-to-be-death/996036/18 "2024-02-02T02:39:38Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > There’s a similar plot to the “Lights Out” radio mystery by Arch Obeler, titled [“Bon Voyage”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAsPkIxeRaA). I found this as a podcast, and it’s a great story. However, now I also remember why I’ve been shying away from OTR, as much as I enjoy the format: horrible sound quality in so much of the content. I’m no audio snob, but some of those old epidodes are painful to listen to.