Review: The Last Match at B Street Theatre

Coordinated timing and precise rhythm are crucial in both theater and sports. Playwright Anna Ziegler combines those winning elements to bring both worlds together in her one-act, 90-minute drama The Last Match, about a rising star facing off with a tennis legend at the men’s U.S. Open semi-finals.

Little did B Street Theatre imagine that the plot would mirror one of the defining moments of this year’s Wimbledon matches—when 15-year-old Coco Gauff unseated tennis legend Venus Williams.

The Last Match explores the back stories of two tennis players dueling it out—six-time champion Tim Porter and rising Russian star Sergei Sergeyev. Porter, played by B Street regular Jason Kuykendall, knows he has reached his peak and is facing the downslope of his career. And Sergei, played by Hunter Hoffman, is just entering the upper-echelon of sports, full of spunk, spark and smugness.

The fun part of The Last Match is that it’s presented as a real-time match—all action is on the tennis court with the actors holding rackets and simulating realistic physical play with serves, slams, lobs and returns. Interspersed in the nonstop-action are personal side stories that include the players’ two wives: Elisabeth Nunziato as Porter’s wife, who put her own career on hold for hopes of a family, and Stephanie Altholz as Sergeyev’s domineering Russian wife.

The tennis court set is simple—though the close-up projected videos can be distracting when the lips don’t always coordinate with the dialogue. But overall, this is a winning match, with a talented twosome who manage keep their balls in play at all times.