Set during the Great Depression in 1932, The Last One Nighter on the Death Trail follows the travails of a vaudeville act called The Disappointment Players, when vaudeville was on the way out. Pudge, Skeeter, The Countess, Moe, Wally, The Kid, Trixie, and Veronica find themselves in Dallas, once a hotspot for vaudeville shows. They rehearse, work up new numbers, kill time, hoping an act will bail so they will get some time on the stage. Money, food and luck seem to be in short supply.
Moe is the savvy manager, Pudge is the unabashedly angry comedian (really, really angry) Skeeter is the sweet, caring, Bible Belt girl who fills in where she’s needed, The Countess is a talented, middle-aged actress who never achieved the fame she deserved, Wally is good-natured and lofty, but clueless, Veronica is the saucy, zaftig temptress, who “plays” the saxophone, and delivers the raunch. The Kid and Trixie are the ingenues. They all assault each other with jabs and jibes, though some are decidedly more acrimonious than others. Their self-deprecating humor reveals a lot about their despair and resentment, venting the pain that makes it so difficult to soldier on. Some of the secrets they confess go way beyond the snappy, blue, cynical humor we expect from the circuit. Degrading childhoods, religious fanaticism, delusions of aristocracy, sexual bumbling. It keeps sneaking in and gets progressively worse.
Written by David Goodwin and Christie Vela (with songs by Our Endeavors Theater Collective) Last One Nighter explores the dark, despondent, degeneracy precipitated by hard times, implacable disappointment and the ugly measures we must take to survive. Goodwin and Vela consider the ironic roots behind the humor we use to exorcise the demons that plague humanity. We all know humor comes from the deep hurt of living in a world where grace and warmth are at best, hard to come by. Reminiscent of pieces like: The Singing Detective, Pennies from Heaven and Flannery O’Connor’s The Life You Save May Be Your Own, this is rage and sorrow dressed in the clothes of song, dance and laughter. The shadows lurking behind the hijinks and hokum emerge without apology or deference.
Might Last One Nighter be a metaphor for empty American Values? For our squelched impulses to embrace better angels? Probably. It’s most definitely sharp, pointed pathos at it’s finest.
Theatre 3 presents The Last One Nighter on the Death Trail, playing April 26th-May 20th, 2018. 2800 Routh Street, Suite 168, Dallas, Texas 75201. 214-871-3300. theatre3dallas.com.