The Last Picture
-
Wed 18 Feb19:45Theatre 2
-
Thu 19 Feb19:45Theatre 2
-
Fri 20 Feb19:45Theatre 2
-
Sat 21 Feb14:15Theatre 2
-
Sat 21 Feb19:45Theatre 2
On a school trip to a photography exhibition, Sam - an emotional support dog - gently guides a group of young people through images from Europe during World War Two.
As the photographs unfold in the audience’s imagination, a difficult conversation begins: about history, empathy, and what it means to witness harm - or to look away.
'I would want people to leave the show feeling a sense of hope. That it will reaffirm their sense in the power of humanity’s goodness and the potential we all have for empathy and imagination.' Catherine Dyson, Writer
Told entirely by one performer, The Last Picture invites audiences to think, feel and imagine together. There are no projected images, no replicas of the past - just live storytelling and the quiet, steady presence of Sam, creating a safe space to explore one of the darkest chapters of our shared history.
Through imaginative and emotionally-rich narrative, The Last Picture asks urgent questions about moral responsibility, complicity, and how we respond to hate - then and now. Book now for this powerful and intimate solo show.
This brand-new play by Catherine Dyson provides a thought-provoking exploration of empathy, imagination, and collective memory from the perspective of an emotional support dog, Sam.
Meet the director
Directed by John R. Wilkinson, the play will see actor and storyteller Robin Simpson take on the role of Sam as he takes a group of school children on a trip around an exhibit focusing on Europe in 1939.
Director John R. Wilkinson: “The Last Picture will offer audiences a profoundly human and immersive journey and we have an incredible team on board to bring the play to life. Robin has a wonderful versatility as a performer and I am so excited to see what he does with the role of Sam. So much of the show relies on the audience’s imagination and how Sam gets us to experience that together and Robin for me, is the perfect actor to take us on that journey. I can’t wait for rehearsals to start!”
A York Theatre Royal, ETT & An Tobar and Mull Theatre Production
“A moving and perceptive tale”
North West End – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Content Warning
Contains some strong language and sensitive subject matter.
This production includes references to the Holocaust and antisemitism. It has descriptions of discrimination, violence, torture and death.
Running time: 75mins with no interval
“It’s immersive from the very beginning.”
Credits
Catherine Dyson is a writer and performer. Her writing credits include The Luminous, On Track, Thunder Road (UK tours), Peter Pan (Sherman Theatre), Bitcoin Boi (Riverfront Theatre), Believers (South Street Arts Centre), and Transporter (Theatr Iolo, UK and Kolkata tour - also produced in Austria); and for audio, The Egg Man (BBC Radio 4) and Mansfield Park (eight-part adaptation for Audible). She is an Associate Artist with RedCape Theatre, Theatr Iolo and Paptertrail, currently on attachment at the National Theatre, and a member of the 2025 Orange Tree Theatre Writers Collective.
John R. Wilkinson is a multi-award-winning director with Cerebral Palsy. Wilkinson reunites with ETT following his direction of Tonderai Munyevu’s Mugabe, My Dad and Me, which won Best New Play at the UK Theatre Awards. He was named the 2024 Clore Fellow and is the tenth recipient of the Genesis Future Director Award at the Young Vic. Wilkinson is an Associate Director at York Theatre Royal, and a Trustee of Middle Child, the Stephen Joseph Theatre, and Pilot Theatre.
Robin Simpson plays Sam. His theatre credits include Footloose, Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, Sense & Sensibility (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Gaslight and Men of the World (Devonshire Park Theatre), Guy Fawkes (York Theatre Royal), Abigail’s Party (Harrogate Theatre), Classic (Edinburgh Fringe & Hope Mill Theatre/Her productions), Macbeth/ Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre), Dirty Laundry (Claybody Theatre), Almost a Sacred Duty, Anna of the Five Towns, Beryl, A Voyage Round my Father and Laurel and Hardy (New Vic), Chamaco (HOME), Neverland (Lakeside Arts), Boeing Boeing, Bedroom Farce, David Copperfield, The Hound of the Baskervilles; The Road to Nab End and Travels with my Aunt (Oldham Coliseum), The Travelling Pantomime, The Wind in the Willows, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Seagull, Hansel and Gretel, The Railway Children; Pinocchio, Pygmalion and The Little Mermaid (York Theatre Royal), Inside Out of Mind (Meeting Ground Theatre Co.), Grandpa in my Pocket (Nottingham Playhouse), Lost Boy Racer (Lawrence Batley Theatre), We Love You City! (Coventry Belgrade), Me, as a Penguin, It’s a Lovely Day Tomorrow, Flat Stanley (West Yorkshire Playhouse), A Passionate Woman (Chester Gateway and The Theatre by the Lake), Frankie and Tommy, The Rivals, Red Skies over the Severn, The Century Plays (The Swan Theatre).
Robin has played the Dame in York Theatre Royal's pantomimes since 2020 and is due to appear in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 2026/27. His television credits include: The Continental (from the world of John Wick), Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Doctors, Holby City, Waterloo Road, Liverpool 1, Home Fires, and See No Evil – The Moors Murders.