These rarely performed miniature plays from Samuel Beckett have the trademark exploration of age, memory and the passing of time.
Siân Phillips as Woman in Footfalls and Rockaby | Photo © Steve Gregson
Richard Beecham directs Charlotte Emmerson and Sian Phillips in Footfalls and Rockaby respectively.
Charlotte Emmerson is captivating as May, pacing and counting her footsteps in an endless routine.
Conversing with her mother, who is out of sight, begging for the carpet to be removed so that she can hear her footsteps more clearly.
The repeated nine-step motif becomes musical and its rhythm drives the despair and longing of May in her tattered clothing and desperation.
The confined staging of the pieces reflects the claustrophobic, endless routine.
May is trapped both physically and symbolically by the size of the lit area which she paces to pass the time.
At times she is childlike and the recorded voice of the unseen Mother, played by Phillips, captures the frustration and acceptance of the daughter’s routine.
Rockaby finds Sian Phillips equally as confined in her rocking chair, sat within a lit box where she hopes to see and be seen by those around her.
The nightmarish sense of lives wasted and the wait for death are themes in both pieces. Rockaby relies on a recorded voice-over which Phillips occasionally echoes.
These are powerful and challenging pieces that bring the existential crisis of the characters into sharp focus.
The sense of isolation and loss alongside potential past trauma heightens the poetry of the language and creates a compelling evening.
Although at 45 mins it is short, the intensity of the performances and text keep the audience wrapt.
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Reviewer: Petra Schofield
Footfalls and Rockaby is showing at the Ustinov Studio in Bath until Saturday 4th December 2021.
