A stranger arrives. A balance breaks. Survival gets personal.
From the first quiet moment to the final reckoning, this drama never lets go.
Set on the crumbling island of Kasos in 1177 BCE, The Last Goat tells a quietly tense story of survival, longing, and control. Young Kori dreams of escape. Her grandmother Melina clings to the life they’ve managed to preserve. When Nikolis, a charming castaway with a shifting story, arrives, their fragile balance begins to crack. Desires clash, lies deepen, and the three hurtle toward a dangerous confrontation none of them may survive.
The setup: An island. A castaway. A collision of needs and secrets.
Kori and Melina live alone on the edge of a vanished world. They’re scraping together survival after a mysterious collapse has emptied their island. Then Nikolis washes ashore, claiming nobility and shipwreck. Kori sees possibility. Melina sees threat. As truths unravel and motives shift, the story becomes a tense standoff over freedom, safety, and power.
Cast
Performance Highlights
Liris Robles brings restless energy to young Kori.
She captures the ache of youth trapped by obligation, swinging between hope and heartbreak with fearless openness.
Jan Zvaifler’s grandmother Melina is the kind of role that simmers until it burns.
With quiet control and emotional weight, Zvaifler turns suspicion and survival into something riveting. Every glance, every pause lands with meaning.
André Amarotico gives Nikolis both charm and threat.
He shifts effortlessly from sympathetic castaway to manipulative outsider, keeping the audience unsure where his loyalty—or danger—truly lies.
Director Highlight
Gary directs his own script with focused restraint.
As both playwright and director, he builds a tightly wound story of emotional standoff, slow revelations, and unspoken danger. The result is ancient and modern at once—just like the world of The Last Goat.
Very Up-Close Theater
The setting alone deserves mention. Central Works stages its productions in a 49-seat theater tucked inside the Berkeley City Club—one of the most intimate performance spaces in the Bay Area. You don’t just see the actors—you share air with them. Every seat is close enough to catch a glance, a twitch, a whispered aside. The design wraps around the action, with seats arranged along two sides and a few directly across, enclosing the performers in a tight, all-surrounding frame. It’s not just theater—it’s an experience. You feel like you could step into the scene, or that the scene might spill into your lap. Emotional nuance lands with full force in this space, where the fourth wall is less a barrier and more a gentle suggestion. Very special.
An Observation—and Suggestion
The play opened with a well-executed projection onto a screen at the front of the set—briefly setting the scene with time, place, and atmospheric motion. It was effective, evocative… and then, used no more. What began as an excellent design element simply vanished. As later transitions relied on drawn-out lighting fades—some clearly allowing for costume changes—the energy dipped. From the audience, we found ourselves wondering: what happened to that strong visual cue? Continued use of projections could have sustained the mood and cohesion of an already thoughtful production.
Delicious Uncertainty
No one gets exactly what they want in The Last Goat—and that’s what makes the ending so satisfying. Nikolis is exposed, but not expelled. Kori is wiser, but still stuck. Melina survives, but her grip slips. The dagger returns to the mantle, but the danger hasn’t passed. It’s not resolution—it’s reckoning. And in that charged, open-ended moment, the story earns its silence. No neat bows. Just tension, truth, and a final birdcall that echoes long after blackout.
Tension lingers like a storm.
CATCH IT IN BERKELEY
The Last Goat runs June 28 – July 27, 2025 at the historic Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA.
Performances: Thursday & Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 7pm, Sunday at 5pm.
Tickets are $35–$45 (Fri–Sun) and Pay-What-You-Can on Thursdays and preview nights (June 26 & 27).
Same-day sliding scale tickets ($20–$45) are available starting at noon on the day of the show.
For tickets and info, visit centralworks.org or call 510.558.1381
★★★★★
Each review is created through my proprietary FocusLens℠ method—an original editorial process shaped by firsthand experience, critical insight, and structured narrative design. Original photography, graphics, director quotes, and animated elements are incorporated to enhance reader engagement and visual impact. State-of-the-art scaffolding systems support organization and phrasing, but every sentence and decision reflects my own voice and judgment. These are not AI-generated reviews—they are authored, shaped, and published by me.
