The first of two excerpts from Edward Petherbridge's extraordinary performance as Beckett's Krapp.
What the critics said:
Edward Petherbridge's definitive performance ... handles every absurd and anguished detail with finesse, his Krapp is the loveable embodiment of our hopeless condition. ... He savours the arthritic clowning at the start without overdoing it ... A Dublin accent brings out the lyricism that Beckett himself suggested showed he had 'blood in his veins', the tone quick changing between melancholy at remembered loves and sardonic petulance at forgotten failings. Equally impressive are the brooding silences, filled with remorse too painful to utter. (Time Out)
The part is a gift to an experienced actor and Edward Petherbridge rises to it with a performance of consummate detail and precision. ... In the wordless preamble to the text, his comic timing is wonderfully exact. .... Petherbridge reminds us of the music-hall influence on Beckett's work, and his eloquent, melancholy face, like that of a clown, reflects both the absurdity and the pity of his situation. (Financial Times)
What Petherbridge conveys so admirably ... is the stillness of the man listening to his younger self. ... Beckett gives Krapp no words to express his response but Petherbridge stares into the nothingness of his present day and, within a certain range, we complete the picture of his desolation for ourselves. (The Times)
He can convey exasperation with just a twitch of the wrist ... and he can hold and stretch the silences of the play longer than anyone in any production I've ever seen. (Independent)
The extraordinary Edward Pethebrridge is every wiry inch the self-absorbed protagonist of Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape. ... His version ... is appropriately weird, frequently funny and, above all, meticulously staged. Here is an actor of poise made for small gestures, who can make the turning of a page an act of consequence, who offers the idea in two or three small, shambling steps this is a tired old man who sits around listening to a tape recorder a lot because his feet are killing him. ... The role calls for a tragic clown; just as Krapp is addicted to bananas, it's not in his nature to avoid slipping on the peel he tosses to the floor. And Mr Petherbridge, with the defeated air of a chagrined vaudevillian, offers such a portrait. Employing a light Irish accent, he invests Krapp with an affecting dignity. He is both wise man and fool, an old gent trapped, like the rest of us, in his own story. (New York Times)
Like the playwright, this actor is a poet of stillness. (Washington Post)
Visit Edward's website (which includes his weekly blog) at [ Ссылка ]
