Last Stand

"Where was it that I read of how a condemned man, just before he died ...thought that if he had to live on some high crag, on a ledge so small that there was no more than room for his two feet, with all about him the abyss, the ocean, eternal night, eternal solitude, eternal storm, and there he must remain, on a hand's breadth of ground, all his life, a thousand years, through all eternity - it would be better to live so, than die within the hour?" Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment.
In a distant country, a man dreams of walking barefoot on the grass for the last time in his life. Back home, his estranged brother receives a parcel from death row containing stories of surreal but strangely familiar incidents. These incidents relate to a past they both remember and to a photograph taken years ago, in which they stand side by side.
Last Stand is a distinctively visual show about brotherhood, memory, time and reflection, in which light paints amazing pictures and stories materialise out of thin air.
Performance dates
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
East Kilbride Arts Centre
Pearce Institute, Glasgow
James Arnott Theatre, University of Glasgow
Press
'Vanishing Point already looks set to make its mark… poetry in motion'
The Times
'a highly-polished and distinctive piece of work, staged with precision and acted with a sure-footed confidence that belies the young age of the performers.'
The Herald
'Vanishing Point did something really rather special at the Traverse last night. It caught the complete and undivided attention of every member of the sell out audience…it makes you think and it makes you laugh… the stories are fragments of genius.'
Edinburgh Evening News
'Visually elegant and tremendously atmospheric.. . and it draws wonderful performances… '
The Scotsman
Credits
Directed by Matthew Lenton and Alistair Rolls
Text by Matthew Lenton
Set and Lighting design by Kai Fischer
Performers
Brian Conaghan, Pauline Goldsmith, Giovanna MacKenna & Alistair Seed
Silhouettes Paul Bradshaw and Jennifer Gourlay
Stage Manager Sian Mitchell MacGregor
Assistant Stage Manager Kati Clark
Deputy Stage Manager Emily Ballard
Publicity Vicki Cunningham
Set Construction J and B Scenery