John Hurt Returns to West End with Krapp

The revival of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, starring John Hurt, returns to London in January after its sell-out performances in September at the Barbican. It opens at the West End's New Ambassadors Theatre for a limited seven-week season from 25 January until 11 March 2000.

Hurt made his return to the stage after a five year absence to appear in the production in the autumn as part of the Barbican's Beckett Festival, produced in conjunction with Dublin's Gate Theatre. Hurt is best known for his long-running film career in which his credits include Little Malcolm, The Elephant Man, 1984, White Mischief, The Field, Crime and Punishment, Rob Roy and Love and Death on Long Island.

The monologue, first performed at the Royal Court in 1958, features Krapp who, each year on his birthday records a tape reflecting on the events in his life. Now an old man, he replays passages from his tapes of the previous 30 years and recalls his past loves, disappointments and fascinations.

Krapp's Last Tape had just seven performances during the Beckett Festival. At the Ambassadors, it will run every day from Tuesday to Saturday, with two performances on most days.

The production will follow Lee Hall's Spoonface Steinberg into the New Ambassadors. Spoonface Steinberg runs from 5 to 22 January. Shared Experience's production of Mother Courage and Her Children and a revival of David Mamet's Speed the Plow are due at the theatre later in the year, though no firm dates have yet been set.

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