Krapp's Last Tape's endless returns

Krapp's Last Tape's endless returns

Beckett is a master of metatheatrics. His dramas are as much about the concept of theatre itself – and the subversive act of watching them – as they are about anything else. So he would approve, I think, of the artistic choices the Royal Court has chosen to revive the single-act one-hander Krapp’s Last Tape, which first graced its stage in 1958, as the curtain-raiser to the English-language performance of Endgame. The curtain-raiser this time is…

Godot’s To-Do List and Krapp’s Last Tape – The Royal Court

The double bill at the Royal Court (Leo Simpe-Asante’s curtain raiser, followed by Samuel Beckett’s classic). Godot’s To-Do List charts an endless number of tasks for its protagonist, the number of which is quantified by a party popper sound effect. Flora Ashton’s quasi supermarket checkout voice is a playful antithesis to Shakeel Hakim’s Godot, a frantic figure decked out in suit and bowler hat. Such tasks range from the banal to the impossible…

Krapp's Last Tape / Godot's To Do List ★★★★★

No playwright divides a room quite like Samuel Beckett. Some find his work profound, precise and piercing, while others feel it drifts, seemingly without purpose and never quite arrives anywhere. Which is why their handling on stage is so crucial to the audience’s experience of these pieces. It’s a bold choice, then, for Gary Oldman (multi award-winning actor, writer and director, most recently seen in Apple TV’s Slow Horses) to make Krapp’s Las…