The Last Quiz Night on Earth

As the world prepares itself for an Life Extinction Event as a giant Asteroid the size of Singapore is about to crash into the Earth several things are happening; solemn music and repeated announcements on the radio; the worlds population take to the streets driving – anywhere – ignoring all rules of safety; the landlady and regulars (audience) of the Four Horsemen Pub gather to see out their last two hours of their life for the Last Quiz Night on Earth.

Such is the simple premise of Washington TG’s latest play offering. Set up in cabaret seating the audience, who were as much a part of the play as the cast themselves, took up their seats to enjoy consummate Quiz Master, ‘Rav’ (Andrew Molloy) lead us through the questions with customary ‘Please pass your papers to another table to mark your answers…’

The host/landlady was ‘Kathy’ (Joanne Chard) whose genial manner kept everyone at ease (despite the impending demise of the Earth). Having first heard the news on the media earlier that day Kathy’s estranged brother ‘Bobby’ (Danny Stones) had walked seven hours to be with his sister making a dramatic entrance and demanding the keys to Kathy’s car and departing almost immediately – only to return shortly afterwards having crashed the car in the carnage on the roads. The last surprise entrant on this final day of Earth was ‘Fran’ (Rachel Neill) who, despite not having seen Rav since she was 14 and had stalked him on Facebook ever since, confessing her undying and absolute love for him leading to much snogging.

Each character succeeded in holding the audience within their character as they played their roles well with many twists and turns along the way including Bobby only having arrived hoping to see his sister failing in life as his own life and marriage was a failure; and Fran finding out to her absolute distress that her unrequited love of the last fifteen years was all for naught as Rav was gay.

The remaining cast members (the audience) played their roles well as they interactively played along completing a quiz of thirty questions set over five rounds with varying degrees of success. The prize of £250 being agreed for the winner of the most originally named team.

In true ‘Quiz’ fashion the first and last letters of our quiz answers spelled out a poignant message for mankind as the four main cast members reconciled their differences before eternity.

This ‘cast member’ managed to come joint 1st place in the quiz (only to be beaten in a tie breaker). As for the winner of the £250 the best name was just about to be named when we were plunged into darkness and, with suitable sound effects, the world ended…

A unique offering of drama well crafted by an imaginative group not afraid to ‘push the boundaries’.

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