The Last Supper: A Grand Guignol Love Story
A death dinner. A zombie apocalypse. Love, democracy, and everyone fighting for a seat at the last supper.
THE LAST SUPPER
A Grand Guignol Love Story by David Simpatico
What if your last supper really were your last supper?
As civilization collapses around them, seven wildly different survivors gather under one roof for an impossible dinner. At the center of the evening is Edgar, an elderly man who has decided to die on his own terms. A death doula has been brought in to help him make that final passage. But Edgar’s carefully planned death dinner is interrupted by a rather larger problem: the dead are rising.
Political zealots, believers, skeptics, lovers, old gods, new machines and zombies all demand a place at the table. Some want to eat. Some want to preach. Some want to decide who has the right to live—or die. And some just want to survive until morning. The Last Supper is a darkly comic Grand Guignol love story about the collision between individual choice and collective survival. Beneath the blood, absurdity and zombie mayhem is a surprisingly intimate question: When everything falls apart, what do we owe one another?
Round The Bend Theater presents this special staged reading at Byrdcliffe Theater as part of its larger commitment to developing and co-producing bold new plays and supporting playwrights. And because the apocalypse has impeccable timing, we’re making a Halloween party of it. Come dressed as a zombie and join the parade and contest!
$25 tickets
PURCHASE TICKETS
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
David Simpatico’s career highlights include: the book/stage adaptation of Disney’s High School
Musical; The Screams of Kitty Genovese (Jonathan Larson Award; music by Will
Todd); Garden of Light, libretto for choral symphony, withcomposer Aaron Jay Kernis. His
musical adaptation of Twelve Angry Men, music and lyrics by Michael Holland, received its
world premiere production in June, 2022 at Theater Latte Da in Minneapolis, directed by Peter
Rothstein, and a subsequent production at Asolo Rep in Sarasota, Florida. His grand opera, The
Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing, with music by Justine F. Chen, received its world premiere at
Chicago Opera Theater in March, 2023, also directed by Peter Rothstein. He is currently
adapting Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone, with co-bookwriter Darrah Cloud, and
composer/lyricist, Michael Holland. He is also working on That Hellbound Train, a new jazz
opera with composer Lisa DeSpain, based on the short story by Robert Bloch. His play, Ex-Gay
Bar, was named Honorable Mention in the Carlo Annoni International Playwriting Award, as
well as receiving the inaugural Voices For Change Action Grant by ArtsWestchester. Most
recently, his oratorio adaptation of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, with score by Will Todd,
received its first production with Opera Holland Park at Sinfonia Smith Square in London, Dec,
2024, 2025 and 2026.
David is an alumnus of the Composer Librettist Development Program at American Lyric
Theater. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University, and an
undergraduate from Northwestern University, where he studied playwriting under Linda
Jenkins. He has received support from Edward Albee Foundation, Millay Colony, NY Theatre
Workshop, Eugene O’Neill Foundation and Rhinebeck Writer’s Retreat. David is a proud
member of the Dramatists Guild, and with playwright Darrah Cloud, is co-founder of Howl
Playwrights in Rhinebeck, NY, where he lives with his husband and muse, Robert C. Strickstein.