Unless you’re a close friend or relative, I’d probably much rather communicate with you via text message, email, or carrier pigeon than talk on the phone. But writer/director Jedidjah Julia Noomen’s “Last One Standing” let me experience one of the most unexpectedly intimate and intriguing telephone conversations I’ve had since I was a landline-using 16-year-old.
Participants are ushered alone into a curtained alcove decorated with news articles detailing historical disasters, and are then given a choice of three phone numbers to dial. I was connected with an anonymous actor (the cast includes Onella de Zilva, Mercedes Hesselroth, Janine Renee Cunningham, Simon Green and Fred Skoler) portraying the lone survivor of an airplane crash. She delivered a powerful monologue about perseverance and engaged me in a thought-provoking conversation that made me reconsider how I treat my future and past selves.
Utterly unique at this Festival, “Last One Standing” is a provocatively personal encounter that encourages the kind of inner reflection and genuine connection we rarely find time for, especially at Fringe.
Orlando Fringe Festival: Tickets and times for “Last One Standing”
Lowndes Shakespeare Center
This article appears in May 15-21, 2024.