It’s the end of the world and friends Kieran, Ollie and Ash have retreated to an old childhood hang out. Everything seems straightforward –  until the arrival of Phoebe brings back feelings best left in the past. 

Set against the backdrop of threatening rumblings and a countdown to the 5:30 apocalypse, the story unravels as an attempt from Phoebe to get forgiveness for the unforgivable. It poses a question to us all: if you knew you had one last night on earth – what would you do? 

With a stripped back set and minimal technical influence, we are left as an audience to focus entirely on the dialogue between the characters as they navigate the old tensions and pain of the past when the stakes couldn’t be higher. 

Childhood best mates Ollie (played by Lewis Noble), his twin Keiran (played by James Chetwood)  Ash (played Joshua Sinclair-Evans) are well cast, each actor expertly drawing out a different energy to the disturbing presence of Phoebe, the antagoniser, thus helping us to understand both the dynamic between the friends, and how the past unfolded. Phoebe  (Olivia le May) however seems slightly limited in her character development;  we had little understanding of her nature beyond what she’d done ten years ago. 

The piece is cleverly structured, drawing us first into a warm haze of easy nostalgia as the young men look back on simpler times, when their biggest concerns amounted to little more than “Foot and Mouth and Happy Slapping”,  before pulling the rug out, forcing us to reckon with the moment when innocence was shattered by the death of a close friend in a drink driving accident.

The subject matter is raw and gritty leaving me at times feeling uneasy and asking myself what I would do in the same situation. This is undeniably due to the strong concept at the heart of this piece and the pressure cooker of the apocalyptic backdrop. 

We never know what is causing the end of the world – and it doesn’t matter; the emotive drive of the piece becomes our focus.  Will Ash forgive Phoebe for causing the death of his girlfriend? Will Kieran abandon the comradery of his twin brother and best friend for one last moment of intimacy? 

In a world of increasing uncertainty, when the ‘end of the world’ doesn’t seem like such an abstract concept anymore, One Last Breath Until The End successfully reminds us to cherish what’s important, and forget all the rest.