Famous Last Words. Goodwood Theatre and Studios. 24 Apr 2026. Preview

 

Phoebe (Virginia Blackwell) is very, very nervous as she sniffs hard, pumping herself up, posting to Instagram photos of her fab house and food for a special housewarming. Stopping, starting again. So hilarious when she can’t pronounce charcuterie, opting for the easy ‘platter’ description. It’s all about the cheese. It’s clear she’s a hardcore influencer.

 

This is but a hint at an evening to come. Guests to her luxe home, shared with wealthy accountant boyfriend Nick (Daniel Fryar-Calabro), are oldest friend Steph (Emelia Williams), an aged care worker, and boyfriend Michael (Chris Gun), a PhD who works on a factory floor, and is Phoebe’s ex. Nick’s parents own the luxe home. Michael and Phoebe rent.

 

Director/writer James Watson offers 80 minutes of darkly funny attempts at reconnection, sharp disconnection, and confusion as four different people attempt bridging different lives over a span of changed times—this hell called the housing crisis.

 

There’s a not-much-used phrase to describe economic life in the 21st Century: “well heeled”. Yet it’s Phoebe and Nick who traverse their home barefoot. Steph and Nick are oldish shoe-shod. A poignant pointer to the underlying insecurity grounding this group, whatever is or isn’t in their wallet.

 

A nervy, defensive Phoebe attempts re-establishing her friendship with her bestie from the poorer side of town they grew up. Michael struggles valiantly to establish an across-the-social-divide rapport with Nick. None of the four manage this well at all. It’s so dark. So funny as they dance around each other. So sad and shocking as more differences than commonalities emerge.

 

Regrets. Anger. Entitlement. Opposing beliefs. Lost beliefs, dreams, and senses of identity.

 

They are broken. Phoebe by her guilts. Michael and Steph by the fact they may lose their rental in a month. Nick by stressed defensiveness of his place in life, hard working to keep Phoebe happy.

 

As the beer, wine, and whisky flow, political points are made, ideological demarcations established. It becomes clear there are no solutions they see—each yelling into the void of their fears.

 

This lack of solution is key to Watson’s script. The lack of awareness to seek them. Instead, it’s division upon division obscuring any hope of unity to solve a crisis. When you’re living in hell, it’s hard to find means of escape.

 

Watson moves the production across the traverse stage set with grand precision, accentuating a powerful, snappy ‘he said, she said’ neck-turning experience.

 

Oscar Sarre’s score brilliantly uses songs across time of pop culture eras to date the four’s varying relationships, adding extra dimensional depth to the production. Steven Dury’s lighting is sharp and basic, delineating space and powerfully leveraging onstage tension.

 

Watson’s cast are a magnificent ensemble of varying shades of temperament, vulnerability, regret, and loss, played with impeccable timing and depth of honest truth.

 

David O’Brien

 

When: 24 Apr to 2 May

Where: Goodwood Theatre and Studios

Bookings: humanitix.com