After my Q&A at Feel, the first production at the newly relaunched Lion & Unicorn Theatre, earlier this year, I’m delighted to return for this next in-house production from the same team… an eerily prescient piece that sounds to me like an absolute must-see for Years and Years fans (and that includes me!).
A dark, brutal, almost verbatim-style selection of interconnected monologues, At Last tells the “what if” story of the aftermath of ten years of a totalitarian right-wing regime in the UK. It is a searing search for redemption and reconciliation in the rubble of a broken society, whilst questioning who we are when everything that makes us human is stripped away.
“We don’t know how to forgive, we only know how to forget.”
The old world has fallen and something brave and new has taken its place. Out of the fire and rubble and the ashes, something new is born. A chance to learn about the past and to discover who we were to save the future. A chance to find hope anew, or to tear open wounds which will never close again.
This is the story of ten years of hate. Ten years of oppression and anger when we gave ourselves up to the dark.
A story of the mother who fought for her broken sons, and the father that stood in judgement. The daughter willing to pay the ultimate price for freedom, the man who stood by and watched and the woman that listened.
This is the story of when the world went mad.
It is time to tell the truth.
At Last.
Presented by Proforca Theatre Company, who took over management of the Lion & Unicorn Theatre in March, At Last is co-written by Feel‘s James Lewis and Alexander Knott, whose Hedgehog premiered at the Lion & Unicorn in June care of Boxless Theatre, and helmed by Proforca artistic director David Brady with associate director Jess Barton.
Terri Paddock founded WhatsOnStage.com and the WhatsOnStage Awards, running the company and its events from 1996 to 2013. Terri is also the author of two novels, Come Clean and Beware the Dwarfs, and has previously written for the Evening Standard, Independent, The Times and other national publications. She also produces the annual Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and acts as a digital, content strategy and event consultant for theatre, producers and other clients. She tweets about theatre at @TerriPaddock.
