Actor with Alzheimer’s disease to perform Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape

A new production of Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape will run at The Cockpit theatre later this year, featuring an actor diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Beckett’s 1958 monologue, which centres on a man listening to tapes of his younger self on his birthday, will be performed by 84 year-old Peter Marinker.

According to press material, “The production is being created in direct response to Peter’s diagnosis, with in-ear prompts and onstage support in place, running alongside the play where needed. It offers a live exploration of memory, ageing and selfhood, both within Beckett’s text and in the reality of the performance itself.”

Marinker, a notable Beckett interpreter, formed The Godot Company in the early 2000s, dedicated to performing the playwright’s iconoclastic work “as Beckett intended”. The new production will feature recordings of himself from when he last played Krapp more than 30 years ago.

He said: “As an actor I love to share other’s created characters and words. I believe them and convey them to an audience for them to believe them. Nowadays we use gadgets to remember things, to remember ourselves. Krapp uses a tape recorder to remember the words of his young self. A couple of years ago I discovered I had Alzheimer’s disease. Now I feel very excited to do the show.

“My brain is taking me on a journey with more of the right side of my brain than the left. The right brain of instinct and feeling rather than the left brain of calculation and thoughts. In our society the left is the dominant side. I feel that the excessive reliance on the left is taking us, or in my case, my children and grandchildren, over a cliff. Now I’m reaching back into my past to find something to help me in the present.”

Krapp’s Last Tape is directed by Cockpit director Dave Wybrow, with design by Duncan Henderson. The process of creating the show will be captured by videographer Chris Lincé.

Performances will run from the 2 to 5 September 2026 at The Cockpit in Marylebone, and proceeds will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Society.