Playwrights don't usually receive tips. My surprise, therefore, was considerable when, before the second of three previews of my play The Last Drop in Washington DC, $US100 was thrust into my hand with an injunction that I take my partner Maya "somewhere nice for dinner".
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
We were sneaking a peek at a preview, two nights before attending the world premiere on April 15. When we arrived at DC Arts Center, this stranger, who had already seen the first preview, waxed lyrical about the brilliance of the production and the writing. Rather embarrassed, I introduced myself as the playwright, with that fistful of dollars being the upshot.
This is my second play to be produced by Washington's Scena Theatre. It was the great British theatre-maker, Steven Berkoff, who in championing my work, connected me with Scena's maverick artistic director, Robert McNamara, and in 2015 I attended a public reading of my play Guilt. Three years later I was back for its world premiere, at which time Scena also hosted a reading of The Last Drop, which was shortlisted for the Queensland Premiere's Drama Award, but, like Guilt, has never received an Australian production.
But here it was getting one in the US. At the preview it was immediately clear that McNamara fully understood the tragicomic nuances of a play set in a future when water has become the primary currency. There Joe (played by Robert Sheire) and Mary (Stacy Whittle) scratch out a meagre existence in the dunes behind a beach, thanks to a ramshackle still Joe has devised for desalinating seawater. Their hand-to-mouth existence is shaken up by the arrival of Valentino (Ron Litman) and Esmeralda (Danielle Davy), the first outsiders they've encountered since the Great Catastrophe. The play is about how surviving in extremis changes perceptions of love, friendship, morality and life itself.
The reaction, both during the sold-out opening night and in conversations at the after-show party (with wine provided by the Australian Embassy), was all I could have hoped for. The audience even laughed in all the right places!
It was a delight to work once more with Ron and Danielle, actors of the highest calibre who both excelled in Guilt six years ago. Robert and Stacy had yet to reach that level as of opening night, but they should grow further into the roles. A highlight of McNamara's production is the compelling lighting (Marriane Meadows) and sound (Brandon Cook) during the monologues.
The reviews were enthusiastic, with John Stoltenberg of DC Arts saying: "The play's big joke - and it's a joke on us, the human race, really - is that avarice and animus have a better chance of survival than empathy and care. Or as Esmeralda puts it: 'If there ever was such a thing as morality, it died with the planet.' ... [It] wrestles with themes of sex, death, and morals and... both entertains and invigorates the mind." Anne Valentino wrote in MD Theatre: "The play essentially distils the remnants of humanity down to their most basic needs and behaviors: food, shelter, water and the primal urges that live on... If you're up for a searing, thought-provoking show that will prompt you to ponder several deeply philosophical questions while occasionally laughing at the sheer absurdity of the condition, then this one is definitely for you. This production is highly recommended."
The night after the opening, Scena hosted an encouraging reading of another of my plays, The Wolves' Club, about the actor Edmund Kean. Hopefully a production will ensue...
