Stephen Leach’s sixty minute play, One Breath Before The End opens with a jolt: total darkness, then an almighty bang. When the lights snap on, we’re plunged into the grimy underbelly of an abandoned car park, littered with urban debris – a discarded tyre, a shopping trolley, chunks of broken concrete. It’s the old teenage haunt of Olly (Lewis Noble), his twin brother Keiron (James Chetwood) and his best friend Ash (Joshua Sinclair-Evans), who have gathered here because tonight may be their last as its forecast is that the apocalypse is coming and the end is nigh.

As they argue over whether the warning is genuine – Keiron has his doubts but we’re told, he’s rarely right about anything – they’re interrupted by the arrival of Phoebe (Olivia le May), a figure with complicated ties to all three. Recently released from prison after killing her best friend – who was also Ash’s girlfriend – in a drink-driving accident, she has been summoned by Olly, ostensibly so she can apologise to Ash but Leach gradually hints at darker motives; if the world is ending, what exactly is there left to lose?

Leach’s taut, stripped-back drama uses its apocalyptic framing to probe friendship, guilt and unresolved resentment among a group of Gen Z old friends staring into the void. The writing is sharp and economical, even if it occasionally feels a touch too polished for its age group; whilst it was nice that every other word wasn’t “like”, maybe it would have been even more true to life if there had been a few scattered throughout the dialogue – the word seems ubiquitous for younger generations today.

The performances are uniformly strong, with an easy naturalism that makes these fractured relationships convincing. Mimi Collins directs with precision, making excellent use of the claustrophobic confines of The Glitch, while Ruth Varela’s sparse design and the super, ominous, ever-present soundscape (another string to Leach’s bow) creates an atmosphere of mounting dread.

For all its tension, the play doesn’t quite land anywhere revelatory, nor does it offer much that feels new about friendship or regret. Still, there’s something refreshing in the way it sidesteps laddish cliché, placing a young woman at its volatile centre and giving it a different twist.

Unlike the apocalypse, One Breath Before The End isn’t world changing (or world ending for that matter) but Leach is an excellent writer and I await his next play with anticipation.

Three Stars.

Reviewed by Alan Fitter.

https://www.theglitch.london/