Adelaide Festival<\/p>\n
Memories are hit and miss<\/p>\n
Beckett Triptych:
\nFootfalls, Eh Joe and Krapp\u2019s Last Tape
\nby Samuel Beckett
\nState Theatre Company of South Australia
\nScenic Workshop and Rehearsal Room
\nAdelaide Festival Centre.
\nFebruary 24. Tickets: $ 31 – $ 69
\nBookings : adelaidefestival.com.au
\nBASS 131246.
\nUntil March 15.<\/p>\n
Jean Paul Sartre said that hell is other people, but for Samuel Beckett it is much closer to home. \u201cYou know that penny farthing hell you call your mind\u201d, says the scathingly reproachful woman\u2019s voice in Eh Joe<\/i>, \u201cThat\u2019s where you think this is coming from, don\u2019t you ?\u201d For Beckett\u2019s characters, consciousness is a prison and memory a rebuke, and if being inside your own head is not hell, then it is certainly a form of purgatory.<\/p>\n
In State Theatre Company\u2019s excellent Adelaide Festival Beckett program – their triptych, with side panels, Eh Joe<\/i> and Footfalls,<\/i> and Krapp\u2019s Last Tape<\/i> as centrepiece – the themes of fading recollection and inconsolable regret are foremost.<\/p>\n
Performed in the Rehearsal Room and Scenic Workshop in the lower depths of the Festival Centre, these three works remind us of the spare, poetic intensity of Beckett\u2019s shorter works. Tautly directed by Corey McMahon, and subtly lit by Chris Petridis, Eh Joe<\/i>, originally written for television in 1965, depicts a man in a dressing gown retreating into a shuttered bedroom only to find a woman\u2019s voice (Pamela Rabe) taunting him with memories of his cruelties to past lovers, including one who suicides.<\/p>\n
Joe, splendidly played by Paul Blackwell, sits motionless on the bed while a camera edges slowly closer, sending a live video feed on to a scrim screen across the stage. His face and eyes loom ever larger as the enormity of his transgression is revealed.<\/p>\n
Footfalls <\/i>is a dialogue between a woman, May (Pamela Rabe) and her unseen elderly mother (expertly voiced by Sandy Gore). Like a penitent in Limbo, May trudges from one side of the stage to the other \u2013\u201cseven, eight, nine, wheel\u201d while her mother\u2019s voice beckons and demands. Dressed in Victorian Gothic grey, Pamela Rabe memorably redefines quiet desperation. Geordie Brookman\u2019s direction carefully confines the action, as does Ben Flett\u2019s chiaroscuro lighting.<\/p>\n
Krapp\u2019s Last Tape<\/i> is a Beckett favourite with a brilliantly simple premise. Krapp, now aged 69 is looking back on his life at 39, trying to fathom his earlier self. Using a reel-to-reel tape recorder, he plays old spools documenting his thoughts on life and love, only to discover he does not recognise or remember.<\/p>\n
Directed by Nescha Jelk and featuring veteran actor Peter Carroll, this segment is a more mixed success. Ailsa Paterson\u2019s rag and bone d\u00e9cor, with towering heaps of old furniture, fills the cavernous stage area in the Scenic Workshop but it dwarfs and distracts from the central focus \u2013 a table, an overhead light, and an old man pondering his fragmented life. Peter Carroll\u2019s distinctive voice invigorates the recordings, but as Krapp in real time, his alienation is sometimes too quizzical to engage us. That said, Beckett Triptych<\/i> is a winning opener to the festival.<\/p>\n
Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
\u201cMemories are hit and miss\u201d The Australian, February 27, 2015, p.14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Adelaide Festival Memories are hit and miss Beckett Triptych: Footfalls, Eh Joe and Krapp\u2019s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett State Theatre Company of South Australia Scenic Workshop and Rehearsal Room Adelaide Festival Centre. February 24. Tickets: $ 31 – $ 69 Bookings : adelaidefestival.com.au BASS 131246. Until March 15. Jean Paul Sartre said that hell is other people, but for Samuel Beckett it is much closer to home. \u201cYou know that penny farthing hell you call your mind\u201d, says the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,5,11,14,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-32","category-archive","category-festival","category-state-theatre-company","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2461,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions\/2461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}