La Dernière Bande (Krapp’s Last Tape) – Stanley Theatre, University of Liverpool
On his sixty-ninth birthday, Krapp (Denis Lavant), as has become his custom, hauls out his old tape recorder to review one of the earlier years, and make a new recording commenting on the events of the previous twelve months. Whilst his younger self speaks to reveal an idealistic fool, will the passage of time reveal the kind of fool he has become?
This is the UK debut of director Jacques Osinski’s production – which opened the Avignon Festival in 2019 – that, performed in French with English surtitles, exposes the bleakness of recorded life. Indeed, almost seventy years since it was written, this one-act play remains as relevant – perhaps more so – in 2024, when we can so easily identify with its themes of isolation, reflection, and loneliness following our experiences during the rece...