THE LAST BLOW

In the exact moment you feel like giving up, you can go through an entire lifetime.
There’s much at stake: a challenge to resolve with a single, decisive stroke. Could today be the day of the final goodbye? A house ablaze, a newly married couple, a half-open coffin.
Then, unexpectedly, someone or something shifts the course of events.
He or she arrives, almost unnoticed, stepping in quietly, like an unexpected guest or a mapmaker. They redraw the boundaries of our inner world, awakening us. They rub our eyes with briny wisdom, extend their hands, open as symbols of hope.
“Leave? Let him die? What should be done?”

text and direction
Giuseppe L. Bonifati

set designer
Linda Sugataghy

partnership
DOO  (IT) / Det Flyvende Teater (DK)
and other partners to be defined

An Amish family—a father, a mother, and twin sisters—gathers at the bedside of their deceased son, a “dead man” who speaks, having taken his own life for love. Surrounding him are symbolic figures: the beloved “Eastern Woman” (representing Treason), “Little Bird” (Consciousness), and the mystical “Biancospino” (Wisdom). Before he can fully depart, there are still unresolved issues to address, allowing him to process his grief over lost love and prompting his family to reflect on the depth and authenticity of their own relationships.

I felt the presence of a woman from the East, like a ghost visiting an artist in a dream. She appears with another enigmatic figure, “Hawthorn,” a semi-mystical priest dressed in white, to whom everyone confesses why they wish to see a poor man’s life end. The Amish family—comprised of two Siamese twin sisters, a father, and a mother—stands around the dying man. A little bird symbolizes the innocence of childhood and the grace of the past, while a man who appears mute is silent but not truly voiceless.
A kiss from the “Eastern Woman”—whether tender and romantic or intense and sensual—might either revive the dying man or deliver the final blow everyone seems to crave. The sisters, too, eagerly await this ending, perhaps for their share of inheritance, for the land, or simply because he has long occupied the one large bed in the house.

photos: THE LAST BLOW | dec 2012 | International Workshop | Odin Teatret

(Francesca De Sanctis-L’Unità)
“It’s interesting to read the work of this young playwright, who takes his time, allowing for pauses before delivering the characters’ lines with dry, concise sentences—everything they need to say and nothing more. Perhaps we should add Giuseppe L. Bonifati to our list and keep an eye on his work in theaters.”