“THE LAST MAN STANDING” IS NO JOY TO SIT THROUGH
The message to take an active role in preserving the natural order of the earth is an urgent one. The Last Man Standing opens with a masked figure, whom I presume to be the Last Man, sitting at a table and writing a letter to express his environmental concerns. Puppets populate his flashback to the time when the world was healthy and spritely, ending in decomposition and destruction. However, the production itself was neither healthy nor spritely.
For most of the hour, stories are through puppet plants and animals. The puppet work often goes askew, with awkwardly executed movements and confusing animal figures. I read afterwards that the skeleton creature was that of an earlier Wildebeest, but I’m not sure how it decomposed enough for its skeleton to end up having only 2 legs, a reptilian skull, and a very long and flexible tail. But perhaps that’s how toxic the world becomes with too much litter!
Many of the other characters are confusing too, and many of them do not add anything to the production, and may as well have been edited out. Bits and pieces of narrative begin and do not tie up, dragging the production. Even scene transitions and changing of props happen in slow –motion. Eventually audience members gave up and zoned out. When the masked figure returns and continues his letter, with some stern warnings to future generations, there is brief hope that this white- clad chap writing by candle light will provide some illumination, but by the end of the play there isn’t even an explanation as to why he is masked. Perhaps it was just a bad day.
While it is evident that there is potential for greater work, especially for the actors themselves, I really wouldn’t put “The Last Man Standing” on any priority list.
-By Tarryn Saunders
Venue: Magnet Theatre
Sat 3 September 18:30
Sun 4 September 21:00
Mon 5 September 19:00
Tue 6 September 9:30
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