SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Connecticut
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us
A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewAll That Fall
|
Never thought about radio play technique but in the dead of t’other night got a nice gruesome idea full of cartwheels and dragging of feet and puffing and panting which may or may not lead to something.
— Samuel Beckett writing to his friend Nancy Cunard
|
"Michael Gambon as Mr Rooney and Eileen Atkins as Mrs Rooney (Photo: Polly Hancock) |
The cast in costume, sit on benches at either end of the stage waiting to take part. They speak their parts holding scripts. There are sheep baaing, birds singing and farmyard animals, maybe pigs snoring, should we not realise from other clues that this is the countryside. We hear cartwheels on gravel and Mrs Rooney dragging her swollen feet and ankles. These sound cues are detailed in Beckett’s script which is probably his most accessible and audience friendly.
The play concentrates on Mrs Rooney’s journey and all the local characters she meets on the way. This is an area where everyone knows everyone else’s business and they all enquire about the health of relatives. She first meets Christie (Ruairi Conaghan) a carter and commends him on his frankness in her own candid way. We are told about Little Minnie, the daughter the Rooneys have lost as a child. She muses that if Minnie had lived now she would be of an age when, “she would be girding up her loins, ready for the change.” Mr Tyler (Frank Grimes) meets her on his bike. Mr Slocombe (Gerard Horum) the clerk of the racecourse will try to give her lift and literally be stuck with trying to lift and wedge the very stiff and supposedly very obese Mrs Rooney into the cab of his vehicle. She describes herself as “a big, pale blur”. Now Eileen Atkins is very slim so this is casting for radio!
What makes this production is the utterly compelling Eileen Atkins with the gloriously comic asides from Beckett as she divulges every detail and eccentrically comments on herself and others. “It is suicide to be abroad . . . . but what is it to be at home?” she asks. Her humour is self deprecating and her range of expression a master class in acting. There is excellent support from James Hayes’ grumpy Station Master, Mr Barrell and the spinster Miss Fitt (Catherine Cusack) whom Mrs Rooney calls “the dark Miss Fitt”. Miss Fitt goes on and on and Eileen Atkins spins slowly towards us, her eyes conveying the agony of enduring Miss Fitt’s monologue.
Michael Gambon arrives late and is rather sullen and morose. He is bad tempered towards his wife as he recalls being buried alive in his office yet we also see a moment of tenderness between husband and wife. I will not reveal why he is late and how that will trouble both Rooneys. It is almost criminal that so few will be able to see this production. The waiting list is closed at Jermyn Street and the staff there must be daily disappointing those hoping to see it. Could All That Fall be filmed so that acting students might see this brilliant production for posterity? I feel very privileged to have seen it.
|
Subscribe to our FREE email updates with a note from editor Elyse Sommer about additions to the website -- with main page hot links to the latest features posted at our numerous locations. To subscribe,
E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com
put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message -- if you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country. |
| All That Fall
Written by Samuel Beckett Directed by Trevor Nunn Starring: Eileen Atkins, Michael Gambon, James Hayes, Gerard Horan, Frank Grimes, Catherine Cusack, Ruari Conaghan, With: Ian Conningham, Aidan Dunlop/Oliver Barry-Brook Designed by Cherry Truluck Lighting: Phil Hewitt Sound: Paul Groothuis Running time: One hour 15 minutes without an interval Box Office: 020 7287 2875 Sold out to 3rd November 2012 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 11th October 2012 at Jermyn Street Theatre, 16B Jermyn Street, London SW1Y 6ST (Tube: Piccadilly Circus) |
|
REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email . . . also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. |
