Theatre News

Gambon Stars in Beckett’s Last Tape at Duchess

Editorial Staff
London's West End

As previously tipped, Michael Gambon will tackle Samuel Beckett’s monologue Krapp’s Last Tape in a limited season from 15 September to 20 November 2010 at the Duchess Theatre. The production transfers from Dublin’s Gate Theatre and is directed by Gate artistic director Michael Colgan.

The play, originally 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.

The last major London outing for Krapp’s Last Tape was in 2006, when the late Harold Pinter made a rare stage appearance in it at the Royal Court as part of the theatre’s 50th birthday celebrations.

Krapp’s Last Tape will be Gambon’s third Beckett play presented in the West End in recent years, following the dialogue-free Eh, Joe (also transferred from the Gate) in 2006 and Endgame, with Lee Evans in 2004. His other recent stage credits include No Man’s Land, Celebration, Henry IV, The Caretaker, A Number, The Unexpected Man and Troilus and Cressida.

Currently at the Duchess, The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, which opened 20 July 2010 (previews from 15 July), is due to finish on 11 September. Following Krapp’s Last Tape, a rather different beast, Chichester Festival’s transfer of the musical version of Erich Segal weepie Love Story opens on 6 December 2010 (previews from 27 November).