London.
One Last Thing (For Now)
by Lilac Yosiphon and the acting ensemble
4Stars****
The Old Red Lion Pub Theatre, 418 St John St, London EC1V 4NJ, until 25 March
Phone Number:
+44 844 412 4307

Runs 140 mins, including interval.

Sensitive and memorable
This memorably remarkable presentation is ‘inspired by love letters during wartime in different languages and cultures.’ A number of correspondences suggest the ways in which couples separated by war are being severely affected by the events to which their letters allude. But there is no central narrative. It is a kind of interwoven set of variations on love, separation, and loss.

The couples we watch are being affected in different ways and in different places and periods. And, although a loving relationship is evident in each couple, the ways in which they and their relationships are presented show us very clearly that although people will all be affected in some way by the separation and fears inherent in the fighting of overseas wars, there is in most of them a toughness which they themselves find surprising, bewildering and, .

The play’s title very artfully suggests the ways in which the couples we watch coping with separation hope (and, at times when the habitual feelings of their earlier lives take over, the assumption) that sooner or later the nightmare will be over and they will wake together to cope with and enjoy a new day.

One carping remark: the space which the pub has converted into a theatre is not large and the noise made by an enthusiastic young cast, one of them vigorously wielding a trombone, is sometimes overpowering––at least to oldies such as myself. (However, the trombonist demonstrates later on that he can actually play the instrument very well – and quietly!)

So, an evening in the theatre that is not a play exactly, but a kind of often fairly noisy meditation on the unions and joys of life, intermixed with its sorrows and losses.

Director: Lilac Yosiphon.
Set and Costumes: Elliott Squire
Lighting: Matthew Cater
Music: Angus McRae, Sam Elwin and Thomas Wingfield

The Acting Ensemble: Josephine Arden, Sam Elwin, Carolina Herran, Cole Michaels, Katerina Ntroudi, Tom Shah, Elizabeth Stretton and Tomas Wingfield

2017-03-12 12:45:27