The Last Sparatan : Wonderful performance by Pierre Brault in this one-man romp through Greek History!!

Reviewed by Ryan Pepper.

Ottawa theatre legend Pierre Brault returns to Fringe Fest with a comedic solo show about an ancient Spartan who just wants to enjoy art, and maybe create some too. Kaphalos is an amateur historian in a society that hates writing, and a disgraced Spartan warrior, one of the 120 Spartiates to surrender to Athenian forces at the Battle of Sphacteria in 425BC. Living in Sparta years after the battle and now working as a tanner, he is asked by Lysander, legendary Spartan admiral, to act as defence lawyer to an irreverent playwright charged with sedition and breaking Sparta’s strict laws involving what can and cannot be said in art. The play follows Kaphalos’ struggle to defend the only great playwright Sparta’s ever had, and his increasing disillusion with Spartan society that values death on the battlefield as the greatest thing in the world, and is vehemently opposed to all forms of art and culture.

Brault has certainly done his research. Spartan society is carefully recreated, from its strict class divisions to the upper class’s fear of the helot slave class that outnumbers the citizenry, as Brault casually but correctly states, eight-to-one. The details of the Peloponnesian War are factual, and Brault uses real Spartan history to create a convincing backstory for his protagonist. Preoccupied as it is with real events going on, The Last Spartan feels like it could have honestly come out of the Dionysia theatre festival at the end of the Peloponnesian War. In small asides removed from the main story, Kaphalos reflects upon Sparta’s military training schools, socially endorsed pederasty, and his time as a hostage in Athens, with such a depth of knowledge that it really seems like these events are Brault’s own life. Kaphalos becomes an historical person, not just a stage character, and the keen sense of setting imbues the play with the sense of a really interesting biography or history lesson.

Historical accuracy aside, Brault gives a wonderful performance, effortlessly handling about six different characters over the course of the play, usually flipping between two at once. He plays the fictional Kaphalos, the historical Lysander, the condemned playwright, Kaphalos’ ideologue wife, and the comedic playwright Aristophanes in a hilarious bit that contrasts Athenian sense of humour with Sparta’s dour seriousness.

It’s easy to get caught up in the historical accuracy or the masterful acting, but the themes tackled in The Last Spartan are of equal importance in making this a must-see play. Kaphalos is tasked with defending a playwright who dared poke fun at the proud Spartan society, and art in Sparta is strictly regulated by the government. It explores issues of censorship and satire, but also, on a larger scale, of the place of art in society. Should culture only exist to praise great warriors, or is it allowed to critique and push boundaries to inspire reflection and change? Can art change people’s minds? As Kaphalos brings up near the dramatic conclusion of the play, art does not fight battles or plow the field or protect a city from invasion. But surely it must have its role in building a better society.

In history, Sparta was the dominant military power of the ancient world. The city never lost of a major battle between the years 669BC and 371BC, and in the Peloponnesian War they crushed Athens and became the most powerful city-state in Greece. But they were an ideologically driven state, the world’s first fascist superpower. With no culture to guide them except the culture of war, did Sparta really come out on top? That’s the question that Pierre Brault brings to this expertly played, riveting production, a question that we still grapple with over 2400 years later.