The Last Supper – Reckless Sleepers

Overview

The Last Supper, created and performed by Belgian theatre company Reckless Sleepers, is a haunting theatre experience. Simultaneously an homage to some of history's most famous and infamous deaths and a tribute to 13 death row victims, it shines a spotlight on final words and last meal requests both chilling and humorous.

The set is minimal, just four long, white-clothed dining tables arranged in a square in the middle of Carriageworks' cavernous Bay 8. Upon entering, each audience member pulls a number out of a hat, is ushered to a seat at the table, and poured a glass of red wine.

Three actors (Mole Wetherell, Leen Dewilde, and Tim Ingram) sit along one table like a panel of wine-drinking, cake-eating, cigarette-inhaling judges and weave together a narrative of final moments and last words, both true and muddled by the path of history. From Marylin Monroe's mysterious overdose ("Say goodbye to Pat, say goodbye to the president, and say goodbye to yourself, because you're a nice guy") to Andy Warhol ("Eh, yeah, you know, eh"), Beethoven ("Friends applaud, the comedy is over"), Jesus ("Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"), and Eva Braun (who said, "I do"). With each quote written on tabs of rice paper, the performers then swallow their words, literally embodying each final utterance.

Intermittently an inmate's case number is read out and, like a game of dinner roulette, a solemn waiter delivers a meal in a silver cloche to the corresponding audience member. The anticipation during these moments in the play is palpable, as the audience cranes to see whether it will be a chocolate cake or liver and goat's cheese or two hamburgers with battered deep fried eggs and French fries all drizzled in syrup, or a large plate of fruit.

The concept is affecting, but the work's aesthetic elements, including the sound and set design, don't add much to the performance. Moments where the actors turn the pages of the scripts on their table also hamper the dramatic effect.

The best part is the audience's response to the familiar dining-table setting, taking the opportunity to talk during the brief interval (where wine is topped up), to share their meals (in this performance people started to pass their plates around for others to try), and to continue once the show has officially finished, with the actors still in tow. The Last Supper concocts a potent mix of human ritual to leave you marvelling at how succinctly a meal or a single quote can sum up a life.

The Last Supper is part of Performance Space's Matters of Life and Death, a program of Aussie and international works that look at that scary ol’ thing called death and our fear of it. Included is dance work Performance Anxiety, not-so-funhouse Unsettling Suite, an Eddie Sharp-curated instalment of NightTime, and the Death Knocks Supper Club of impolite dinner table conversation. Read what the artists had to say in our feature 'Seven Positive Ways to Think About Death at Performance Space'.

Image by Heidrun Lohr.