"I'm left-handed on top of everything else!"
It is not surprising that the Jermyn Street Theatre’s production of All That Fall sold out in under three days: a rare Samuel Beckett play, directed by
Trevor Nunn and starring Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon, in a 70 seat theatre
tucked away behind Piccadilly Circus. A radio play written in 1956, it has never
before been staged despite luminaries such as Ingmar Bergman and Laurence
Olivier applying for the rights, and so to maintain the integrity of the piece
as it was originally intended, Nunn presents to us a staged reading of the
play.
The actors sit to the sides of the stage, rising to take the floor as it is
their turn to speak, scripts in hand and enacting any sound effects that
accompany their arrival. For this is a piece of drama uniquely interested in
the soundscape it is creating as a haunting picture of rural Ireland is evoked,
laced through with a desolate humour, in which the spectre of death is never
far away.
For Beckett, the play is relatively accessible. Eileen Atkins plays Maddy Rooney,
an archetypal Irish septuagenarian who makes her trudging way along a country
road to pick her blind husband from the train station. She encounters a motley
crew of characters on her way and whilst waiting, but once she collects Michael
Gambon’s Dan, their journey back is charged with great emotion and mystery.
Beckett’s poetic language is achingly poignant, especially on the subjects of old
age, companionship and loss, and though densely layered with a world of references,
Nunn’s production maintains a clarity of intense purpose.
Atkins is heartbreakingly direct as Maddy: fragile, feisty, fiercely funny at
times too, especially in a delicious moment as she has to be helped into a car,
where a rare moment of physical acting leads to some hilarious miming with
Gerard Horan’s Mr Slocum. She lacerates Catherine Cusack’s too-demanding Miss Fitt
with a piercing glance too, but much of the strength of the production comes
from her superlative vocal work. Gambon is a late arrival to the show, but his
gravelly irascibility has an immediate impact and his presence is a powerful
counterpart to Atkins, at once adding a note of support yet also intensifying the
sense of fragility.
For all the incongruities that the presentation exposes – Atkins is hardly the
figure described by the others for example, and do the scripts really add
anything? – the ability to have this radio drama enhanced by the small touches
the company can add into their performances more than makes up for it, not
least in watching their own reactions whilst watching their colleagues. All
That Fall is undoubtedly a fascinating experience and one which proves
beguiling in its intimacy, witnessing such talent as Atkins and Gambon at such
close quarters has to be one of the greatest theatrical luxuries of the year.
Running time : 80 minutes
Booking until 3rd November
Labels: Catherine Cusack, Eileen Atkins, Frank Grimes, Gerard Horan, Ian Conningham, James Hayes, Jermyn Street, Michael Gambon, Oliver Barry-Brook, Ruairi Conaghan, Samuel Beckett