I've been looking forward to the Beckett trilogy since I heard it was on. Beckett is my favourite playwright, Not I is my favourite play. There are very few plays I would see more than once - I prefer not to repeat myself. There are fewer still that I would go out of my way to see. Anything by Beckett falls into this category, so when I heard these were showing - and knowing they booked out quickly the last time - I booked the same day.
So it was with some trepidation that I discovered I had to be home this evening for the engineer to come and see to our gas meter, which has been misbehaving. They couldn't give me an exact time, but my flatmate agreed to come home at such a time that I could be in time for my show. Still, the engineer arrived before my flatmate did, and I had to deal with him, then greet my flatmate and explain what was happening, while simultaneously trying to grab some dinner. So it was in something of a flap that I scurried into town, grateful that, for tonight at least, the Tubes are working.
Google Maps had me take the Tube to Covent Garden and walk from there. Not a hard walk if you know the area at all, and not a long one - turn right to Covent Garden Piazza, pass the entrance to the Opera House and take the next street on the left (Russell Street). Then take the second right onto Drury Lane, passing the Theatre Royal on the left. The Duchess Theatre is just a bit further on, on the right.
I pushed my way through the crowd to collect my ticket - the cheapest I found was on the uktheatretickets website. Lastminute was technically cheaper, but lost out with a higher booking fee. Anyway, for what I paid, I was informed I'd get a ticket in the last three rows of the dress circle, and so it proved - I was third row from the back. But there are no bad seats in this theatre, and the dress circle, for once, isn't too much of a climb. So all was well.
And so to the plays. Three one-woman short plays, running about an hour in total, in this case played by Lisa Dwan. Poor woman.. the first, Not I, is notoriously difficult, requiring, as it does, the woman taking part to appear as a disembodied mouth. This presents some staging difficulties - not only requiring the theatre to be totally dark for the duration, but also generally requiring the actor to be strapped into something to prevent anything moving but her head. Neither can she see anything, and generally, I believe, they also wear something to prevent them hearing anything. This play generally lasts between 12 and 15 minutes - she's famous for doing it in under 10. Which is no mean feat, considering that it involves a stream of consciousness, with rapid-fire words issuing from the illuminated mouth.
She played a blinder, I must say. The thing about this play is that it's nigh impossible to follow the whole script. Fair play to the performer! As a listener, your best bet is to alternate between listening to the words - which you can only realistically do for brief periods - and just listening to the babbling effect. As with many Beckett plays, there is much repetition anyway.
As for the staging, I was glad to see they didn't use an Auditor - a shadow figure that stands to the side, saying nothing, but gesturing a couple of times during the play. Beckett originally included one, but conceded that he couldn't find a good way of staging the Auditor. The theatre was gratifyingly dark and disorientating, and they did go the extra mile of turning off the exit signs (just for this one). Sadly, there was some light coming from the control room, or behind it, which was a real oversight.
After the briefest of breaks, this was followed by Footfalls, in which a woman paces up and down, having a conversation with her aged and sickly mother, who is never seen. As in the directions, the light is suitably creepy, and the performer looks ghostlike. A major contrast to the first play in presentation, but similarly deeply introspective.
Finally, we have Rockaby, in which an old woman rocks in a chair - the only prop onstage for the whole evening - while the script repeats, over and over, rhythmic as the rocking, describing her rocking and watching from her window. A study on loneliness.
Typically with Beckett, there's much more going on than you are likely to pick up on with one viewing: but I say, go, enjoy. This is a fantastic production, the acting is great, and at only an hour, it's a short - if not exactly light - introduction to Beckett. And I came out not even thinking in sentences, for, having seen what I had seen, I felt that I could not do language justice. Booking until the 15th, with seat prices reduced on the venue website.
Not having had enough Beckett, I've booked for Happy Days on Wednesday! A full-length play this time, about a woman buried in a pile of something that rises gradually and will eventually smother her. Surrounded by the contents of her handbag, and with nothing to get her out of her predicament, she receives no help from her husband (yes, this play has a second character!) Read into this what you will.
Should be an interesting journey - it's in the Young Vic, and there's a Tube strike! Still, they are supposed to be keeping some lines running a limited service, and I believe they're keeping the District and Jubilee lines, and Waterloo station, open, so that wouldn't be too bad. And I might get some practice tomorrow - there's a play, What the Women Did, at the Southwark Playhouse, that I might go to. And it's in the same area. So that would give me some practice.. if I decide I want the longish walk it would entail..
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