In The Last Drop, by Dante Passarelli, a couple, Cynthia (Fernanda Zancopé) and Gilberto (Ernani Sanchez), stand on the linoleum. Their backs are to a wall that clearly was once elegantly papered, but now is stained and ripped. They peer at an unseen mouldy stain on an imagined ceiling, and fume at their upstairs neighbour for her profligate use of water. Cynthia summons a rather intense repairman (Eduardo Leoni), who flirts with her but resists making repairs, and then disappears until near the end, when he narrates some associative stories.
Gilberto hasn’t been sleeping. He engages in dark flights of paranoia, and tries to make love to his wife in a highly mechanical way. Meanwhile, a downstairs neighbour, Dete (Alessandra Arvati), visits. Outside on the streets, a general strike is taking place.
The Last Drop is a story of urban angst and anxieties, of the horrors of living atop one another, and of the hidden threads of connection among people. At least, that’s my best guess, because it’s actually very difficult to say with any real certainty what The Last Drop is about.
The dialogue, which is in Portuguese with projected English surtitles, meanders opaquely through various inaccessible abstractions, returning indolently now and again to the theme of running water. It may be translation issues, but the language is often self-indulgent and bombastic, frustrating the best attempts to discern meaning.
What the production does, and does extremely well, is to evoke a mood. Noir is mentioned in the dialogue, but, really, this is pure Gothic. Gloom, creeping dread, and shadows crowd the stage, augmented by excellent costuming in jewel-toned swirls. It summons claustrophobia the way one might invoke a demon with a drawn pentagram. It’s impressive, but not necessarily a pleasant experience.
The Last Drop presents itself as a dark comedy, but only the first part of that description is in evidence. There are zingers, but they’re infrequent. Background sound includes “reaction” effects, perhaps intended as comic. Even beyond some synchronisation issues, these don’t really work: they seem to belong to sitcoms of a previous era, and simply distract.
Terrific acting by all four players does much to preserve The Last Drop as an interesting intellectual puzzle to contemplate. Sanchez, in particular, gives his Gilberto a compelling rootless and restive desperation that pushes the otherwise static story forward.
Original, surreal, and at times maddening, this show will not be to everyone’s taste. Its aesthetic is hypnotic, however, and lingers long after its cryptic story fades.
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