After 14 years and performances in eight countries on four continents, this Canadian play takes its final bow

It was a rehearsal process unlike any other.

In 2008, five theatre-makers gathered at a studio in Kitchener to develop a play for which they had no script, merely a kernel of an idea. Over an extended eight-week rehearsal period — unfathomably long, even by commercial standards — they played and improvised, using spoken word, dance, song and mime to delicately craft a riveting story.

The production was a gamble. The story they wished to tell was based on true events that occurred just three years earlier: a horrific suicide bombing in Amman, Jordan, in 2005 that killed Syrian-American filmmaker Moustapha Akkad and his daughter Rima. The group of artists not only wanted to translate that story to the stage but also create a fictionalized dialogue between Akkad and the suicide bomber in an attempt to explore the lives of both men and the path that led them to that fateful day.

No one knew how the show would be received; that eight-week development period was only meant to culminate with two public performances.

But eight countries, 14 years and some 90 performances later, “The Last 15 Seconds” has cemented itself as an acclaimed Canadian production, helping to catapult the theatre company that birthed the show, MT Space, into the spotlight. Now the show returns home to Kitchener for one final performance Dec. 1.

For actor and multidisciplinary artist Trevor Copp, saying goodbye to this production is bittersweet.

“I regard the show as the best thing I’ve ever done and it’s very rare the fact that the best thing you’ve ever done is the show you get to do the most. That’s not usually how it works,” said Copp, who plays the suicide bomber Rawad Abed. “It’s so completely intense and pushed me to the absolute limits of what I was capable of.”

Though “The Last 15 Seconds” has toured around the world — often mounted for one-night-only gigs at various international theatre festivals — the production has rarely played in Canada.

“We keep doing the show abroad, but we seldom do it in Canada,” said Copp. “It’s kind of like the best kept secret.”

The play was mounted at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille in 2011. In his four-star review, the Toronto Star’s Robert Crew hailed “The Last 15 Seconds” as a “pulsating, unforgettable piece of theatre” with a “beauty and truthfulness of its images (that) will linger many years.”

Copp is one of three company members who have been with the show throughout its entire journey, along with Pam Patel and Nada Humsi.

For Copp and Patel, their favourite memory will always be the production’s opening night performance in Amman on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks at a venue mere kilometres from the hotel where Akkad and his daughter were killed.

“We didn’t realize this till the night before,” recalled Copp. “People with missing limbs who were at the blast were also in the crowd. So we were terrified because here we were, across the world, telling the Jordanians their own story.”

But the reception was rapturous. The audience members were shouting out lines during the performance, almost like a talkback, Copp said, and following the curtain call the spectators flooded the stage to embrace the company. One woman approached Patel and told her that if the show was playing every night, she would be in the audience at each performance.

“That, as a young artist, is something that I kept with me all these years because it’s so humbling and grounding, and a solid reminder of why we do what we do as artists,” said Patel.

The final performance in Kitchener will be in memory of Majdi Bou-Matar, the show’s trail-blazing director and co-creator, who died in July at age 47. He also acted in the show for much of its run. Proceeds from the Kitchener performance will go toward a bursary in Bou-Matar’s name, which will support newcomer, immigrant and emerging artists.

“He thought that art would save the world and he worked like this project might save the world,” said Copp. “He worked with that kind of intensity.”

MT Space, the theatre company that Bou-Matar founded, is now headed by Patel. Following Bou-Matar’s death, it felt right to retire this production, Copp said.

For Patel, Bou-Matar was more than just a colleague. “We joked that we were basically Batman and Robin,” she said. “We actually called each other that … We would call MT Space the Batmobile.”

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