Krapp's Last Tape

Synopsis

Krapp's Last Tape is one of the most openly autobiographical of Beckett's writings, where he once again confronts himself but without the searing, wrenching pain and exhaustion of previous works. The play, tinged with sadness and at times overwhelmingly emotional is a poignant reflection of Beckett himself.

Our Review:

16 October 2006

There is something increasingly heroic about Harold Pinter: 76 years old, racked with illness, speaking first from a chair with a blanket over his knees while accepting the Nobel Prize last December, and now from an electric chair (of the non-fatal variety) as Samuel Beckett’s reminiscent old Krapp, hunched over his tape recorder.

Actually, Pinter is not all that hunched. Although he doesn’t stand until the curtain call after 45 minutes, he is stern and severe at his desk. He does not do the full banana business, though he does all the talk. The most terrifying moment is when he sweeps the unwanted tapes and spools from his desk and into a corner of his spooky office.

The setting for this Krapp’s litany of memories about his girlfriend on the river, the death of his mother and his minor success as a writer, is indeed a haunting, dead-of-night den, brilliantly designed and lit by Hildegard Bechtler and Paule Constable, where we can just make out the dark flock wallpa...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

No reviews yet

Click here to add your review