FRINGE REVIEW: LAST WORDS

Before Last Words begins, each audience member is informed of the play's concept: we, it would seem, are the jury who must decide if a confessed killer should be put to death. Before we do, however, the defendant gets one last chance to make us see him as a human being worthy of life and mercy. At the play's end, we will be asked to cast our vote and determine a man's fate. Less a play than a plea for life, then, with many lines taken verbatim from people on death row (hence the title), Last Words attempts to find the humanity in a murderer who is "a fictitious composite" of those condemned to death.

I say "attempts" because, for all its thought-prodding, Last Words seems to be far more intent on listing the horrors suffered by our protagonist than in creating a three-dimensional character. As the oh-so-subtly named Albert Peoples (geddit? Geddit?), playwright and actor Ken Carnes recaps the harsh life of a man who has never known love, and only understands survival. Only in prison, on death row, does he learn to give up his hatred and accept peace and friendship. It's a good idea for a story, if a trifle thin, and Carnes does try to make the character whole and complex, bless him... But when so much of the play is simply repeating the many ways that Peoples has been wronged by the world, one's mind begins to wander. When Peoples finally describes in detail the murder that landed him on death row, true issues are raised and the play takes flight– only to abruptly end a few brief moments later. If the rest of the play had this depth, it could have been excellent. Instead, we hear many variations on a few themes, and Peoples barely grows or changes as a character, making it difficult to go on an emotional journey with him. As an audience, much less a jury, how can we deem him worthy of life if he doesn't entirely seem real to begin with?

Carnes does have a very good play here, it's just somewhat hidden. The device of using actual inmates' last words adds notes of poignant and gritty truth to the script, but it feels as though the script was written to suit the quotes, rather than finding quotes that fit the character and his story. If the quotes are the star of the show, it's only natural that Peoples is less vivid, much to the detriment of the play as a whole.

Last Words' final performance will be this evening at 6:30 at Paul Sharpe Contemporary Art, 86 Walker Street.