Anna Burnside reviews ‘a clever one-man musical’.
The sun is about to explode and everyone is, as Sam puts it, “Going to hell in a Honda.”
Sam is a cabaret singer, so it’s fitting that he’s spending his last hour in the lounge of a ghastly airport hotel. All flights have been cancelled, the doors are locked and a recorded announcement urges guests not to panic.
So, amid the lametta curtain and a broken disco ball, Sam sits at an out-of-tune piano and reprises the show he’s been touring since the end of the world was confirmed as nigh.
It’s a great conceit for a show, and Marc Mackinnon can certainly sell a song. When he segues from Judy Garland to a breathy wee boy trying ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, we get enough backstory to flesh out the story.
Writer Brian James O’Sullivan is a musician, actor and comedian himself, and The Last Cabaret on Earth is a clever one-man musical that nods to several genres but is not restricted by them. The Pasta Bungalow, a throwback to when Sam and his partner would write and perform improvised songs as part of their act, defies all classification.
The narrative meanders a bit towards the end, which is pretty much a given from the start. But Mackinnon does a great job and resists the temptation of Richard Curtis mawkishness. Instead, he faces down the end of civilisation with a mixture of fatalism and exasperation at the poor phone signal. And some great show tunes.
-600.jpg)
The Last Cabaret on Earth performs at A Play, A Pie and A Pint at Oran Mor until September 14, 2024. It then tours to the Traverse (September 17-21) and the Gaiety (September 25-27).
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
RSS