The Last Words, presented by Theatre with Teeth, takes place on a stage contained within police tape. The mystery written by Charlotte Smith follows Rebecca, played by Emily Wallace, who has woken up from her own murder with no memories except for the last words she heard before her death. Not only grappling to rediscover her identity and find her place within fraught family tensions, Rebecca is also determined to solve her own murder. She uses the unnerving last words she heard from characters such as her boyfriend and sister to uncover her murderer, but questions who she can really trust.
The production grapples with themes of identity, trust, and the power of words. Sensitive topics such as gender-based violence and mental health, specifically Dissociative Identity Disorder, are handled in a careful and non-gratuitous manner. A System and Disability Advisor collaborated on the project to ensure accurate representation.
The production, co-directed by Lilly Butcher and Fiona Winning and produced by Dan Hill, is an immersive and intense experience that innovatively uses minimal props, such as photos and mirrors to emanate evidence from a crime scene and reflects the fragments of Rebecca’s memory. With minimal setting and a limited cast of characters exchanging believable chemistry. The Last Words was able to invite the audience to enter the compelling story and invest themselves in the unravelling mystery.
Emotional relationships, both familial and romantic, are established in the fast-paced drama, as is a developed and nuanced mystery with moments of comic relief. The story is holistic, encompassing the audience. By this I mean, the music, audio and lighting interact with the performance and meant I found myself reflecting the same feelings of the characters be it anxiety, fear, or relief. The story unfurled in a surprising way that seamlessly moved between time and setting reinforcing the important and original idea that is the keystone of the production: “it’s not the last words that matter, but all that happened before.”
The Last Words opened in Exeter for two shows before touring to the Space Triplex Studio from the 22nd to 27th of August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.