Alison Carr’s The Last Quiz Night On Earth is a hugely enjoyable pub quiz/play hybrid at the New Vic Theatre
“Aren’t any of you scared”
If an asteroid were heading straight for us, where would you spend your last night? Landlady of The Four Horsemen Kathy rightly presumes quite a few of us would spend it in the boozer and with quizmaster Rav on hand with his spangly jacket, a pub quiz is in the offing. Such is the set-up for Alison Carr’s The Last Quiz Night On Earth which, depending on how much you want to participate, is at least as much actual pub quiz as it is play.
A revival of a Box of Tricks production from a couple of years ago, Anna Marsland’s production fits the New Vic Theatre like a glove. The in-the-round setting is always welcoming but allied with Peter Butler’s old-man-pub design – all tinsel that hasn’t been taken down, beer mats, battered tables and jars of pickled eggs – it is beautifully convivial, those on the front rows really do get treated like regulars and there’s even a certificate if you win the quiz (which I didn’t, pesky Caribbean flags!).
But in among the rounds of questions, Carr weaves a tender story of humanity facing the inevitable. Lisa Gorgin’s big-hearted Kathy is determined that we’re all going to have a good time and Ayan Philip’s sweet sweet Rav is revelling in the attention as emcee but as each gets an unexpected visitor wanting to settle the books in the face of the impending apocalypse, secrets come tumbling out as quickly as answers about sports I didn’t even know I knew anything about.
There’s drama in the relationships that are explored with the arrival of Pria Kalsi’s Fran and Sam Redford’s Bobby, though the beauty comes in the observational detail here. The chat about which celebrity you would want to have the deliver bad news, the realities of traffic jams and bad drivers in times of crisis, what you’d steal from an office if there were no consequences, what song would you pick for your last karaoke number?! (Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield for me.)
A thread about the role the pub can play in the fabric of society is clear-eyed about its benefits and its pitfalls, but the communal atmosphere conjured up in here is akin to one of those classic nights out. It’s almost a shame that an asteroid is coming ever closer, the haunting spotlights of Daniella Beattie’s lighting design evoking that growing terror as we approach the end. I only wish I’d watched it with a pint of pale ale and a packet of scampi fries – highly recommended.
