Review: OUR LAST FIRST, The Space

In putting together any piece of theatre - casting is seen as a crucial and careful step. It can take some time, involving specialist casting directors, assistants, readers, directors and producers who will work closely to ensure they assemble as perfect an ensemble of actors as possible to execute their creative vision. And it isn't just about finding the best actor for each role, as the chemistry between performers must also be established to ensure relationships, friendships and family dynamics are believable. What happens then, when the roles an actor will play in a show are left entirely to chance?

At the beginning of every performance of Our Last First, the audience arrives to see a quartet of performers sat onstage. When the play begins, the actors will each take turns to stand and retrieve a random prop that will inform them which of four roles they will play in the narrative that is about to ensue. The cast and audience find out together in real time which of 24 possible configurations is about to be performed and then, with no time in which to familiarise themselves with dialogue, liaise with each other or even change how they're dressed - they begin.

What Our Last First proves with some certainty is that there is value in this casting approach. This is in no small part due to Lucinda Coyle's diligence in having delivered her characters as humans first - the deliberately (if conspicuously) gender neutral language, universal themes and shifting power dynamics render the script emotionally accessible to each performer and simultaneously challenge the audience to invest in their story with an understanding that transcends gender roles. Though the conclusion very nearly fumbles its own landing with an abrupt change of pace and an interval feels superfluous, Coyle's utterly genuine dialogue flies off the pages of her script (the same pages which line the floor of Lucy Sneddon's creative set design).

Of course the novelty of all of this is limited if you're only going to see this play once, and in that instance its story still needs to be engaging. We meet our two deliberately ungendered central characters on a charmingly awkward first date and then again at recognisable landmark moments in their relationship: spending the night, toying with moving in together and the crucial challenge of jointly assembling IKEA furniture. We come to learn that these scenes represent the couple's 'firsts', with each of them depicting the first time a significant milestone or insignificant habit occurred. Later, we will meet a sibling of one and a friend of the other whose respective arrivals coincide with an introduction of tension and discord to the previously idyllic romance.

That the story in Our Last First is so compelling is also a tribute to the talented company. Beca Barton's passion and wilfulness is perfectly complemented by Eoin Quinlan's self-effacing charm while a hilariously dry Annie Loftus and a deliciously obnoxious Joshua Eldridge-Smith make for fantastic later additions. Much of the preparation of each performer's four possible characterisations goes unseen but obviously represents an enormity of work done with director Samuel Xavier, and though it can scarcely be appreciated in the context of a single performance, the versatility of the cast is surely impressive.

Both a case study in casting and an independently satisfying piece of theatre, Our Last First brings something wholeheartedly special to The Space and if you find yourself overwhelmed with intrigue about how a different casting configuration might affect the performance - your first visit to this show might not be your last.

Our Last First runs at The Space until 14 June

Photo Credit: LuluCam

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