At Last Q&A at Lion & Unicorn Theatre. © Gary Law

At Last Q&A at Lion & Unicorn Theatre. © Gary Law

Proforca Theatre concludes its tenth anniversary season with a revival of its 2019 dystopian thriller At Last, set in the aftermath of a fascist regime. Six years on, how does this politically-charged drama land?

Wind your mind back to September 2019. In the UK, we were in the middle of Parliament’s prorogation and wondering whether Boris Johnson would succeed in forcing the UK into a hard Brexit. In the US, Donald Trump was in his third year in the White House.

Since then we’ve had three more Prime Ministers, the pandemic, Ukraine, Gaza, January 6th, ChatGPT and the AI revolution… and, of course, Donald Trump is back in the White House. To name just a few world events.

Back in 2019, when I chaired a post-show Q&A for At Last, I asked how many were worried about the state of geopolitics and most people admitted they were.

At this week’s Q&A, I asked again and every single person in the room raised their hand. To my follow-up question – Who is more worried than they were six years ago? – the response was once again unanimous.

In At Last‘s alternative-reality present-day UK, a new administration is trying to heal society’s divisions by means of a truth and reconciliation committee following the collapse of a fascist government’s collapse. We meet a young clerk whose job it is to assist witnesses, whose testimonies we also hear: a mother and her two sons on different sides, a potential whistle-blower, an underground rebel, a judge. Will any of them be able to forgive or forget?

For the post-show discussion, I was joined once again by Proforca and Lion & Unicorn artistic director David Brady and operations manager Nancy Turner as well as the At Last cast (left-right): Kim Scopes, Demelza O’Sullivan (reprising her role), Nicole Elizabeth, Dominic Farrow, Tim Larkfield, Adam Halcro and Curtis Talbot.

At Last continues at London’s Lion & Unicorn Theatre until 13 September 2025.

Q&A video

Q&A photos

With thanks to Gary Law.

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