“The Last Word” IO THEATER

Review: The Last Word by Declan Grogan at IO Theater

By: Paul Lisnek, Curtain Call Chicago

*** ½ /4

“The Last Word Is a Toast to Storytelling – So Cheers!”

I dare say you have not seen anything like Declan Grogan’s The Last Word. It is the rare theatrical experiment that turns its apparent liabilities—actors encountering material in real time, a screenplay read aloud from binders, and four cocktails served across the evening—into its chief pleasures. At iO Theater, Grogan and co-producer James Cullinane have created something halfway between an action-comedy, an improv-adjacent high-wire act, and a boozy dinner-party story session. It is not polished theater in the conventional sense. In fact it’s livelier than that.

The Last Word is a spirited (literally), highly social feat of Chicago theater-making: part staged reading, part cocktail experience, and part controlled theatrical free fall. It’s ambitious, unusual and risk-taking as it relies on a game-like framework with an unprepared cast.

The premise has an appealingly unruly elegance: a group of actors gathers to perform Grogan’s original adventure screenplay, but they arrive largely unprepared. They may not know which role they will play until they open their scripts onstage, and that uncertainty becomes part of the entertainment rather than an obstacle to it. Every stumble, sudden vocal choice, delayed reaction, or moment of an actor discovering a plot revelation at the same time as the audience carries an element of risk. The performers are not faking spontaneity or their occasional break out into laughter; the evening is genuinely built around it.

That device could easily become a gimmick, but The Last Word has enough narrative base to support the chaos. Grogan’s screenplay relies on secret knowledge, escalating danger, eccentric characters, and large stakes. The action unfolds through a quest involving Chartreuse and a coveted recipe, an enjoyably odd premise that gives the evening its cocktail-soaked logic. What might be a straightforward comic adventure in a more traditional production, here adds unpredictability. It’s great fun to watch the performers meet the twists,  pivots, and absurdities in real time.

The evening includes four distinct cocktails which arrive as part of the narrative’s structure, and serve to mark the show’s change in mood and escalating stakes. Grogan decides how each drink provides its own flavor profile and tone, giving the audience an additional way to experience the movement of the story. A crisp, bright pour can sharpen early comic momentum; a more herbal or spirit-forward drink makes later developments feel more dangerous, and ultimately decadent as we reach the rare monk-made treat called Chartreuse.

The cocktails are especially effective because Grogan does not treat them as a detachable novelty. The audience does not simply stop the story to have a drink, it moves through the story with the drink alongside. What you get is a genuine cocktail progression: taste becomes part of the atmosphere and the changing glass in hand helps the audience to remember each section. Co-producer James Cullinane has appeared with Grogan publicly to discuss and make the cocktails in connection with the show—a telling indication of how central the drinks are to its conception.

Obviously, a fully rehearsed production in previews will calibrate every laugh, smooth every transition, and polish every emotional turn. The Last Word has chosen to trade some of that convention for discovery and the unknown. There may be the occasional delayed cue, a stumbled phrase, or an uneven rhythm which comes along with the cold-read format. But the imperfections are not a failure of the evening; they are proof of its central promise which is that anything can happen. The audience literally gets to watch the cast negotiate the material before them.

Grogan’s smartest creative decision is recognizing that lack of preparation can reveal a different kind of skill. To pick up an unfamiliar scene, make an immediate character choice, listen closely, recover from a surprise, and keep an increasingly elaborate narrative in motion requires alertness and nerve. The cast’s commitment turns potential chaos into a communal pleasure. They do not merely read the script; they discover it with us.

Come for the novelty of four unique drinks and actors flying without a net. Stay because Grogan (and his co-producer James Culinane who was out the night I saw the show) make those elements feel inseparable from the story itself. The Last Word is funny, adventurous, and unusual, offering the sense that you have not merely watched a table read of a play, but rather allows the audience to join in a wonderfully unruly gathering where a script, cocktail menu, and a theatrical dare all collide in an evening of fun.

“The Last Word” plays once a month, on the last Friday of the month. For the schedule, more information, and tickets, go to: www.TheLastWordShow.com .

(October 30th, November 20th, and December 18th

Drinks are not required and tickets can be purchased without the drink package. In addition, food can be ordered to eat at tables during the show, or enjoyed in the restaurant below before or after the performance.

The IO Theater is located at 1501 N. Kingsbury Street in Chicago