Actor Simon Callow once claimed that entering a theatre for a performance was like being “inducted into a magical space” and that thought certainly rings true in Ecole Georges Méliès graduation film Dernier Acte (Last Act).

Created by students Daphné Chabrier, Laura Hottot & Cécile Peyron, this 4-minute animated short is a love-letter to the much-revered live-performance arena, perfectly encapsulating the transformative power of the medium.

Following a performer/illusionist as he tries to convince a theatre-owner not to convert his beloved playhouse into a shopping mall, Dernier Acte takes an unexpected twist as our protagonist begins to wax-lyrical about his passion for performance.

Taking the nonchalant landlord (and the film’s audience) on a whirlwind tour through theatre’s greatest hits, from ‘merciless Roman Emperors’ to ‘doomed but such powerful love stories’, Dernier Acte leaves you not only appreciative of the craft and storytelling of its young creators, but also eager to revisit the world of the stage.

Lots has been said about the theatre being a dying art (and I’d be surprised if online video hasn’t been cited as one of the reasons), but as Steinbeck so elequiently put it “theatre is the only institution in the world which has been dying for four thousand years and has never succumbed”.

LONG LIVE THE THEATRE!!