The Last Act of Heroism

The Last Act of Heroism follows Cocteau, a young woman who is at first glance: elitist, foppish, manipulative, shallow, and utterly self-involved, trying her hand at overcoming the ‘errors of our time’ through the expression of a new public architecture. 

Throughout the story, Cocteau’s behaviour is commented on, dissected, commended, and savagely criticised by a host of her forebears, including, but not limited to, Rousseau, Pushkin, Proust, Goethe, and Wilde. Through her, they recall and relive some of the best and worst moments of their lives, from which, beyond the pearly gates, they are still reeling.

The work combines elements of satire, fantasy, comedy, tragedy, farce, and drama that begins in William Kent’s Rousham Gardens before being set against the backdrop of a beloved St James’s, London.  

  • No.1

    Rachmaninoff: “I am young, passionate, and spoiled by earlier successes. Too much flattery and too much fame. Depression overwhelms me and I drink too much”

  • No.2

    Mandarin Jacket Boy: “Salubrious Waters, Tea, and Wine, Here you may have and also Dine. But, as ye through the Garden Rove, Beware, fond youth, the Darts of Love”.

  • No.3

    Mandarin Jacket Boy: “Young man, all of us have difficult moments but this is life. Hold your head up high – keep to your anointed path. Work. I work every day. You must work”.

  • No.4

    One of the small fleet: “This new kind of architecture seems to me to come from the head and not from the heart. I cannot simply cast out my architectural gods in one moment and bend the knee to the new ones”.

  • No.5

    VO: “The room is such as has never been seen before. Its décor is an original coup of decorative fantasy... The walls, and the bar itself... are covered with an entirely unknown kind of mosaic, ‘Colourful as colour itself, and as fantastic as our fantasies”

  • No.6

    Madame X: “I have to tell you, frequenting Mendl’s Coffee House in times of agony and despair really helped me…I began to create again. The material grew until new ideas began to stir…inspiration had returned to me”

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