Beckett Season

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BECKETT SEASON : MADCAP - Dec 2006

First of all, I think the powers that be at MADCAP should be highly praised for putting on one Beckett show (marking the centenary of the great man's birth, no less!), but two in such succession? Ah, to be sure, they're spoiling us. As well as reminding us that we are all dying, very very slowly and sadly. Nice one! Yet again the 'CAP shows the way forward for innovative local productions of ace national plays, they should all pat each other on the back for their consistent hosting of such quality shows!

Krapp's Last Tape

Okay, so this is the third time in recent years we've reviewed Tony's production of Krapp, but it really IS one of those actor-finds-a-performance-that-defines-them-utterly moments. If you haven't seen it yet, look out for it the next time he revives it! ;-) Haggard of face and crackly of voice, he's ideal as the elderly nostalgist Krapp. One of Beckett's finest works anyway, this new version from Tony (& Carolyn) adds a few nice touches to the previous versions I've seen. Krapp is wearing groovy white disco shoes, for one thing! The best moment, though, comes when he produces a second reel-to-reel machine to cross-reference a previous tape of his memories - I laughed long and hard. Man, I love Beckett! And I love Tony's Krapp - one of the best creations I've seen in local theatre ever. A million points.

Happy Days : Pepper's Ghost Theatre Company
Regular readers of my reviews (if there are any!) will know that I rate Pepper's Ghost very highly, but prefer their takes on Theatre "classics" to their productions of TIE-style works. Which is why it was such a joy to return to MADCAP a week or two after Krapp's Last Tape to see their version of Happy Days. And I wasn't disappointed - it was absolutely brilliant!

Atop one of the best sets I've ever seen in local theatre (some kind of plastic / polystyrene / cement / buggered if I know how they made it! mound of earth), Sue Whyte gave the greatest performance I've ever seen her give, as Winnie - trapped in a world of uncertainty, slow decay and nostalgia. It was really good to see her given the chance to do something other than "The Mum" character which she often gets lumbered with (well, I say lumbered - often they're good characters), and show the range she's really capable of. Her Winnie was by turns funny, innocent, harsh and tortured.

Behind the mound for almost all of the play, Richard Duncombe was great as ever, whether it was just the tip of his head or hands we saw, or during the painful moment when his Willie finally emerged. Fnarr. Perhaps the best praise I can give, though, is that this piece which can often drag (as feature-length plays with only one actual voice will tend to) rarely lost my attention at all. I was spellbound throughout, and it's not very often you can say that with local theatre productions.

Another hit from Pepper's Ghost, then. A million and one points. Great stuff.

matthew.

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