“The uncommonly deft combination of dance and verbal theater heightens the impact of what might sound like a cliché: a profound meditation on life and death.”

The New York Times, Critics’ pick

Join us for a free matinee of Last Ward designed exclusively for Duke Health students and personnel. The shortened show followed by facilitated Q&A offers the audience an abbreviated presentation with a chance to learn about the artists’ creative process and to discuss the important role for the arts in healthcare.

This event will not exceed an hour.

Attendees are also invited to take in the full-length performance on November 15—16, 7:30pm at Reynolds Industries Theater. Learn more and purchase tickets HERE.

Last Ward follows one man’s journey towards death in a hospital room. Surrounded by the sterile mechanisms of modern medicine, the patient reflects on his life, relationships and connection to place, as the ritual of doctor visits and family calls transform into a surreal landscape of tragedy and humor. Beginning with a slow trickle tracked in by a shoe, the space eventually fills with soil: spilling out from inside flower pots and cabinets and from underneath the bed, a metaphor of impending death.

Last Ward blends dance and theater (featuring 5 monologues in Arabic with English supertitles) in a highly visual evening-length performance that tackles the universal experience of facing death, and invites audiences to reflect on the humanity of an Arab man, a demographic not often seen in the media or on stage, as simply human.

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Cleaning Soil for the Stage

Go behind the scenes as our production team “cleans” soil for “Last Ward” by Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre. The Duke University Venue and Production Management team has been hard at work preparing over 1,000 liters of topsoil for prime-time, removing debris through a multi-step process.

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