Krapp's Last Tape

By Samuel Beckett and directed by Ron Stannard

and

Four Weeks With Ken and Sam

The Maskers presented Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett and directed by Ron Stannard in the Masker's Studio Theatre from the 1st to the 4th March 2000

Krapp's Last Tape

The Director gratefully acknowledges the invaluable help of Tony Harding of  the Hospital Broadcast Association in the preparation of this production. 

Four Weeks With Ken and Sam 

In the second half of the evening, Ron Stannard presents an account of the pleasures and pains of rehearsing this play, through the medium of his rehearsal log .  It will also provide an opportunity for members of the audience to discuss the play and their reactions to the production

BACKGROUND NOTES

Krapp’s Last Tape was first performed in 1958, more than 40 years ago .  It is, as Beckett said, "nicely sad and sentimental, concerned with loneliness, memory and the pain of missed opportunities .  Krapp, a failed writer, has been keeping a diary on tape for 40 years and now, as he listens to the tape he recorded 30 years ago, he is "drowned in dreams", recalling his follies and his vanities .  It is a play about personal decline with a strong yet tender erotic thrust, counter balanced by parody and self-mockery.

To some, perhaps, Beckett remains a puzzling and controversial writer but Krapp’s themes are surely accessible to us all and its images have a resonance which enables this short work to hold an audience’s interest without the familiar structure of the ‘well-made play’ .  That, I suppose, is the acid test of any production

Postscript

Sometime before Christmas, Ken asked me if I would direct him in Krapp’s Last Tape to mark the anniversary of his 60 years in the amateur theatre .  That, simply, is how this production came about .  No doubt Ken looks back on those 50 years as Krapp looks back on his life, and perhaps with a similar mix of emotions - but probably through the medium of photo-albums rather than tapes .  50 years in any endeavour is a remarkable achievement; and more than 30 of them have been devoted to the cause of The Maskers. This production is a small tribute to a significant milestone.

Ron Stannard