The Last Show You’ll Ever See

The Nomadic Theatre Co’s
A Woman. A Trombone. Apocalypse.

Petroleum Jane played by: Sarah Liane Foster
Lights by: Cynthia Jankowski
Created by: Sharah Liane Foster
Coaching by: Giovanni Fusetti
Directed by: Elizabeth Baron


I see Sarah Liane Foster as a wonderfully talented woman. She is doing many thing right as her concept for the show is great, she uses her props well, her vast knowledge of facts, philosophy which she shows off is a pleasure and her very tiny spot of improvisation during her show was a breath of fresh air. Seeing Sarah in a short 10 minutes in the Clown Cabaret I was excited to see her full show, which is something like a hour and 15 minutes. “The Last Show You’ll Ever See” has a lack of a theatrical arch. Nothing in the show hanging us the audience, at the edge of our seats. There is a lack of drama. This problem I lay at the foot of the director Elizabeth Baron and coach Giovanni Fusetti. Sarah Liane Foster seems to play at being a clown, putting on a set frozen expressions, which she repeated throughout the show, rather the being the clown with real moments throughout. It almost felt like she was a cartoon, which is never clown live theatre. Felt very little fresh and at the moment was going on, on stage because of how her clown was playing or not playing. Except the small section where Sarah interacted with the audience, their Sarah excelled and the audience came alive.

There were several things she did right. Playing each part of her trombone piece by piece. No piece escaped her investigation until she put the last piece together. She just screwed the last piece on like she was preparing to go on stage. Rather than her clown discovering the screw and playing with that too. It is a very small moment and may appear to be nit picking but it goes to the state of her clown. She uses mime throughout the show as well, but her mime technique in this show needs a little work.

It was good to hear her credit most of her music as part of the show and it was fun and funny but failed to credit popular music piece, one that I have heard in about 6 different shows in this festival. But wonderful to hear it played live. Her clown name in the program “Petroleum Jane” seemed to have nothing to do with this show and petroleum or that issue. It feels like a very safe show with almost everything set which results in very little risk going on stage. The lighting by Cynthia Jankowski seem complicated for a festival as there were many moments where lighting cues seemed to be catching up to the rest of the show. The use of shadows was very good and people really enjoyed it. One thing I wonder is what would happen if Sarah Liane Foster had one or two other clowns to work with in a different show or this show altered. Most of these faults of this show are the director and the coach; Sarah Liane Foster has no shortage of talent and ideas. Look forward to see what she does in the future.