Review: One Breath Before The End – Alma Tavern Theatre
An intense story which leads to self reflection about what we do with our lives
One of the joys of watching theatre at the Alma Tavern Theatre is that coming up the stairs and into the auditorium is a bit like unwrapping a present. You never know quite what to expect. The intimate black box theatre is the perfect blank canvas for designers to stage their worlds on. There’s been shimmering fabrics, light boxes, gardens, the quiet calm of actors in the moment, offices, supermarkets and crystal rock shops.
This week, Stephen Leach’s new play One Breath Before The End, brings us an abandoned subterranean supermarket car park.
In its own way, Ruth Varela’s set is every bit as beautiful in its accuracy and execution as the shimmering fabrics and greenery of gardens.
The corpse of an abandoned old bike lies in the corner. Rubbish and debris blown to the walls by wind. There’s a twisted shopping basket. Chunks of concrete fallen from the dangerously cracking roof. An old tyre leans against a traffic cone. Dead centre is an elderly shopping trolley sitting between the yellow markings of parking bays.
This was Oliver, Phoebe, Ash and Kieron’s secret place when they were children. Somewhere they would hang out. It was theirs. And in the final hours before the destruction of the world, they find themselves back together in the place they once felt most safe.
The audience does not know how the Earth is going to end or why. The sound design suggests something big is falling from the sky.
Throughout the play runs a tense soundscape. Initially it starts with a cacophony of alarms and beeps that government warnings might give, the sound swelling to a crescendo. We hear distant screams in a town on fire. The rumbling sounds of an extinction level event ramping up the tension.
It’s like an action disaster movie where the hero and those with plot armour move on with their story. These are the people who are left behind, living out their final hours in real time.
Kieron thinks the end won’t actually come. But according to his friends, Kieron isn’t right about anything.
Whilst the backdrop of the story is about the final hours of Earth, Leach’s play focuses on friendships and how they change through time. It looks at the justice system. The long impact of grief, misplaced blame, trauma, forgiveness and ethics – how the loss of a friend has impacted upon them all in very different ways.
It all builds to a shocking moment towards the end that makes us sit up straight.
There are moments of humour. The half price supermarket chicken wrap. Perhaps the best direction ever of someone moving about the stage in a shopping cart. Men thinking about the Roman Empire. But ultimately, it’s a play that examines what we do with our time whilst alive.
Do we make the best of it? Do we shrink our worlds and make our lives tiny? With mere hours before certain death, have we actually lived as well as we can? It definitely provokes self reflection come the end.
Lewis Noble, Olivia Le May, Joshua Sinclair-Evans and James Chetwood were a dynamic cast, perfectly pitched against each other as they worked to tell the story. As tensions increased and tempers began to flare, it led to a gripping show.
Olivia Le May gave a particularly beautiful performance of a monologue part way through.
Come the end of the show, One Breath Before The End left the audience with a sense of wanting more. What happens to these characters next? Do they survive? Probably not. But it’s the result of decent writing that makes you invest in the characters – and also knowing to quit that story while you’re ahead.
One Breath Before The End is on at the Alma Tavern Theatre until Saturday 16 May 2026
For more information or to book, visit: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/almatheatrecompany/2089406
For more information about 1912 Productions: https://www.instagram.com/1912_productions/
Cast and Creatives
Oliver – Lewis Noble
Phoebe – Olivia Le May
Ash – Joshua Sinclair-Evans
Kieron – James Chetwood
Written by Stephen Leach
Directed by Mimi Collins
Set design – Ruth Varela
Photography – Henry Roberts
Associate Producer – Ryan Lenney
One Breath Before The End is at the 53two in Manchester 20-22 May 2026
And
The Glitch London 27-29 May 2026
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