Review: THE LAST MATCH at FILIGREE THEATRE

The Last Match by Anna Ziegler places the audience courtside at the U.S. Open semifinals, where aging American tennis legend Tim Porter (Ryan Bradley) faces off against rising Russian challenger Sergei Sergeyev (Delan Crawford). On the surface, the play tracks a pivotal athletic showdown. Beneath that, it explores the private lives, inner monologues, and emotional histories of four people caught inside this pressure cooker: Tim and his wife, Mallory (Chiara McCarty), and Sergei and his fiancée, Galina (Maddie Scanlan). The result is a meditation on legacy, ambition, love, and the personal cost of a life built around winning.

The production itself is striking. Elizabeth V. Newman’s direction is confident and precise, guiding the play through its temporal shifts with clarity and purpose. Patrick Anthony’s set design, featuring a full tennis court onstage, immediately grounds us in the world of professional sport. Since a real tennis match cannot truly be staged in a theater, the production leans heavily on lighting, also by Anthony, to suggest momentum, tension, and the passage of time. The lighting smartly marks points in the match and guides the audience through flashbacks, keeping the narrative legible as it moves back and forth. Maddy Lamb’s costumes reinforce character, status, and era without ever pulling focus.

Structurally, The Last Match makes a bold and sometimes polarizing choice. The characters regularly break the fourth wall, narrating the match, sharing their feelings, and ushering the audience into flashbacks. Intellectually, it works, especially given the theatrical challenge of tennis. Emotionally, it can create distance. Rather than discovering character through behavior and subtext, we are often told what they feel and why. For viewers who prefer revelation over explanation, this approach can feel cool to the touch if overused. Being told what is going on may add clarity, but it does not always engage the audience as intended. 

The performances vary in texture and impact. Ryan Bradley delivers a grounded, realistic Tim Porter, capturing the stoicism of a seasoned athlete confronting the long shadow of his own prime. There is a lived-in maturity to the work that feels earned rather than performed. Delan Crawford’s Sergei is playful, energetic, and fully embodied, balancing charm, ambition, and insecurity with ease. He brings lightness to the evening and sharpens the generational and cultural divide at the heart of the match.

Chiara McCarty portrays Mallory with restraint and composure. While the emotional range is limited, it aligns with the character’s guarded nature, and her internal conflicts remain legible. Maddie Scanlan lights up the stage as Galina. She is funny, sharp, and emotionally grounded, crafting a character whose humor masks real vulnerability. Her performance brings warmth into a play that can otherwise feel cerebral.

The story also carries historical and political resonance. An American versus a Russian athlete inevitably echoes Cold War rivalries, Olympic symbolism, and national identity. Though the script avoids a specific timeline, the world feels post-Berlin Wall, when global tensions softened but never vanished. Watching it now, amid renewed geopolitical strain, lends it contemporary relevance, reminding us how sports so often become proxy wars dressed in sweatbands and sponsorship logos.

Ultimately, The Last Match is a thoughtfully constructed and well-produced play that privileges ideas, structure, and thematic clarity over emotional immediacy. Its reliance on narration rather than embodiment may keep some viewers at arm’s length, but it remains a distinctive theatrical experience that invites reflection on competition, aging, and what it really means to win, on the court and in life.

As with any Filigree Theatre production, it is worth the visit. This time, courtside.

Duration: 100 minutes, no intermission.

The Last Match
Book by Anna Ziegler
Directed by Elizabeth V. Newman

Now playing through February 22, 2026.

Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 PM
Sundays at 3:00 PM
Additional performance: Sunday, February 15 at 8:00 PM