Review: THE LAST SHOW BEFORE WE DIE, The Yard Theatre

Everything ends at some point. Plays. Life. This review. The Last Show Before We Die dives headfirst into exploring that ultimate inevitability. This result is a mishmash collage of ideas tied together by silly string, practically exploding off the stage.

Ell and Mary are clowns as well as girlfriends. Their relationship also happens to be fragmented, the shards of which slice through the fabric of the show. Their bickering gleefully seeps into the limelight. The performance itself is eventually swallowed by the realisation that their relationship is also ending.

But for all the bombastic clowning, it’s the little moments that matter in The Last Show Before We Die. The two have perfectively fine tuned their coquettish glances and playfully tease the audience. Although the recorded interviews from a ninety year old, a former drug addict, and a midwife that the two lip-sync along to and which form the play’s backbone are less effective in garnering warmth.

It’s not the first time that conceit has been deployed in a clowning show. Sure, it works for broadening its purview but less for mining depth. The production is swamped by elongated sequences with various accounts of and opinions about things that leave loose ends rather than provide the dynamism for the show to take flight.

One anecdote from the pair’s hairdresser recounts the brutality of losing touch with his children after a divorce. Yet the poignant gut punch is brushed over with their scattergun approach and relentlessly gleeful flippancy. 

Cabaret music, props and gags, and general anarchy are thrown at the wall to see what sticks. But just when you think it won’t stand on its own two feet it finds its diamond in the rough. The show comes into its own when it realises that endings mean less for those whose lives end and more for those that will miss them. The tomfoolery sheds its skin revealing a stark longing, grief and melancholy waiting underneath the surface for the right time to emerge. Mary is abandoned alone, flailing helplessly on the stage that has suddenly become colder without their partner, collaborator, and friend.

The clowns’ slapdash charm may be jagged around the edges but together their organic chemistry as performers and as people is impossible to resist. Forget the grandiose elements, the sight gags, confetti, and gross humour. Turn the tech off and let them be themselves.

The production company, HOTTER project, specialises in boundary breaking and taboo shattering. Previous shows have waded anarchically into questions about bodies, beauty, and fitness. Who knows what’s next, but whatever it is they deserve your attention.

The Last Show Before We Die plays at The Yard Theatre until 27 January 

Photo credits: Felix Mosse

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