Written and composed
by Lucy Matthews
Co-directed by Lucy Matthews and Miriam Slater
Acoustic Theatre
production in association with Shadow House Pits
Belconnen Arts Centre to 31
January
Review by Len Power 28 January 2016
Lucy Matthews’ play, ‘The Last Time’, focuses on the
relationships between four young people and their need for love and the modern
day issues that get in the way of it.
For a young audience member, the characters will be instantly
recognizable. Older audience members
will find themselves comparing these people’s experiences with their own when
young in a very different world to today’s.
Lucy Matthews has written very real characters who are
played with great confidence and skill by her young cast who also sing
well. Frances McNair gives a fine
performance throughout the show and her strong singing is particularly
stylish. Hayden Crosweller scores as a
young man who can’t make his mind up between sex and love and Kat Bramston
nicely plays the confusion of emotions in her relationships between very
different friends. Katherine Berry plays
the coolest character of the four with great assurance.
The band-leader, in ‘Cabaret’-like Master Of Ceremonies
makeup, is a strong presence in the show and is hauntingly played and sung by
Samuel Gordon Bruce. The music by Lucy
Matthews is pleasant but a bit generic.
There are some good lyrics but some are jarring to the ear and need
refining. The band plays the score well
but some of the drumming swamps the singers’ voices.
The script needs some cutting, particularly in the second
act where the squabbling of the characters becomes more soap opera than good
drama. The show has been well-directed
in the round and has fine lighting by Edge Sound And Lighting. Overall, Lucy Matthews has produced a
startlingly strong, at times confronting musical, which is also very enjoyable.
This review was first published in the Canberra City News digital edition 29 January. Len Power’s reviews
can also be heard on Artsound FM’s ‘Artcetera’ program from 9am Saturdays.
