Last Dream (On Earth)

A traveller stands on a beach in North Africa, with a group of friends. Tonight, they will try it. Tonight they are getting ready, for a journey to change their lives. Here, we will never know their names.

Decades earlier, a young man is strapped into a tiny sphere. He is ready for his mission: to become the first Human Being in Outer Space. His name will soon be known: his name is Yuri Gagarin.

As if out of nowhere, a musical dialogue starts. Words are spoken, the story of the trip of a lifetime emerges. It is a story of hope, dreams and beauty and of sheer inhumanity.

Last Dream (On Earth) draws on accounts of those who risk their lives for a distant dream. It explores journeys beyond the imaginable, and quests to find a better future in faraway places.

Interweaving a live music score and soundtrack - created by sound designer Matt Padden, musicians Gameli Tordzro from Ghana and Tyler Collins from Alaska, and performers Ryan Gerald, Mercy Ojelade and Adura Onashile, audiences will experience an immersive sound world on headphones, performed
on stage in front of them.

The critical consensus

A truly moving experience.

(*) Lorna Irvine, Across the Arts, 04/04/2015

Beautiful and thoughtful.

(*) Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman, 04/04/2015

The result is a vital snapshot of universal displacement, in which both Gagarin and the refugees are left hanging, without a planet or land of any kind to call home.

(*) Neil Cooper, Coffee-Table Notes, 03/04/2015

The dynamism of the music, as well as the excellent performances, make Last Dream an intriguing and carefully experimental pleasure.

(*) Gareth K Vile, The List, 07/04/2015

Although the stories themselves may not naturally fit in another setting, the whole production works well: a beautiful marriage between the concept by Kai Fischer, the sound design by Matt Padden, and music from Tyler Collins and Gameli Tordzro.

(*) Charlotte Hathaway, TVBomb, 07/04/2015

A gripping, unsettling and distinguished shout from the dark.

(*) Mark Fisher, The Guardian, 07/04/2015

Kai Fischer’s brief, beautiful piece of immersive theatre.

(*) Allan Radcliffe, 08/04/2015

Given that Fischer is, first-and-foremost, a designer, the show is curiously, and bravely, light on visuals (there are a few understated projections). Very much like a radio play for the stage, it gets to the anguished heart of the story of migration from Africa to Europe in a way that puts most of our politics and journalism to shame.

Mark Brown, Scottish Stage, 15/04/2015