Bianca Casusol (Lanapehoking/ New York) greets the audience warmly and asks us what would we do if we knew that the world as we know it is going to end in one hour. What would we do if this was all the time left? She is then joined by 10 performers who have been selected from a 3-hour workshop the previous day to explore how they spend their final hour.

The audience decides that a sandstorm is bringing this world to the end. All performers huddle close and paint a soundscape with swirling sand sounds, crackling weather reports, sirens, telecommunications are down, and howling wind, messages to stay indoors… The start of the end of the world.

Five pairs of performers dealing with their final hour.

The first pair (Guanny Liu-Prosee and Christine Brooks) seem to be flat-mates where one is very busy applying make up to look beautiful in her final hour. We find out that she is applying nice smelling body oil on the off change there are sand monsters and she would appear to be beautiful and to have nice smelling smooth skin. While the first flat-mate doesn’t believe in sand-monsters or hunky looking sandmen she does apply oil to comfort her friend. Her calmness comes from a life time of undermining problems by being a stand-up comedian.

In the second beat our beauty fixated flat mate cuts off a big chunk of her hair, as beauty doesn’t matter at the end of the world. The doorbell rings and she is visited by a sand-monster who is impressed by her beauty and her soft rose smelling skin, and wants to take her as his bride. On finding out that she will have power and riches, our vain flat mate agrees to go with him to live in his world. She becomes the sand men’s queen and escapes the ending of the world.

Jared and Beth (Matt Powell and Laura Irish) are a married couple. While Jared wants to spend the last hour explaining a board game, Beth points out that it is her turn to pick and she wants to celebrate Christmas. This leads to having a drink, seeing the wineglasses from their wedding and drinking everything from the liquor cabinet.

In the second beat of this story, Jared and Beth are happily tipsy and celebrating every holiday they can think of. When they run out of holidays they invent a Beth and Jared day, which includes singing and dancing to their wedding song, ‘Let it Snow’. He finds his wedding jacket’s too tight and getting changed into the wedding dress. Beth and Jared know that this is the last time for everything and their wanting to have happy last moments competes with the sadness of the end. Their final moment is Jared holding Beth in his arms.

Next is old Mrs Winter (Janette McBride-Omega) and Annie (Jessica Charlotte) who are spending their last hour crafting.  It emerges that Mrs Winter has been Annie’s teacher and her surrogate mother since Annie’s mum passed away. Annie is glad to be spending her last hour with Mrs Winter as she has no other home to go to. Mrs Winter shows Annie all of her adventures after Mr Winter died, and we learn that Hubba Hubba means long. In response to Mrs Winter’s questions, Annie reveals she really wants to be reunited with her mum in the after life and practice her veterinarian skills. In their final moment they both happily embrace their imminent death.

The fourth duo (Jeremy Palmer and Lisa Garrity) spend their time together, one reading, calm and collected, while the other is the opposite, wanting to know what the point is, how many books are unread. So many good quotes in this interaction: “All we have is us right now, that is what matters.” While the relationship is not that defined the performers pick up on this. “Relationships are stories and we get to tell only one.” Shoes off and socks off becomes a symbol of freedom and rebellion to the expectations of the world. I like how the characters imitated each other in attitude and manners, as at the end of the world we want to know and connect and see the other one’s perspective. The final moment is a big hug.

The last duo is an angry husband (Wiremu Tuhiwai) who gets joined by his wife (Marea Colombo) who has braved the start of the sandstorm to be with him. The husband has got a hero complex and is frustrated and angry that he and his team of experts couldn’t prevent the climate change that has led to the sandstorm that is finishing the world. He feels he has let his wife down. She copies his pacing and, in answer to his question, reveals what she would save from extinction is strawberries.

In the second beat she has got a surprise Wasgij puzzle and they attempt to speed puzzle together. The wife gets her husband to confess he likes to have control over something. His breaking a piece that doesn’t fit, to keep the illusion of control, is very symbolic.

Personally, I love the variety in the stories, and the surprise of the slightly absurd reality of the sand monsters/ sand-men. That is referred to as a myth in another story – and having stories casually connected is satisfying. There are great quotes in this show and strong character emotions.

And if you only had one hour to live, what would you do?

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