Beckett Triptych: Three Works By Influential Playwright Samuel Beckett – Adelaide Festival Review

State Theatre Company Scenic Workshop & Rehearsal Room, Adelaide Festival Centre, Wed Feb 25 The State Theatre Company has opened its 2015 season with an Adelaide Festival run of Beckett Triptych. Three of influential playwright Samuel Beckett’s works, helmed by three different directors, have been brought together for an evening of keenly-executed absurdist theatre. Footfalls (Geordie Brookman), Eh Joe (Corey McMahon) and Krapp’s Last Tape (Nescha Jelk) all feature a single actor on-stage. Each is forced to confront their memories, their fears, their dashed hopes, their existence itself, via the presence of a disembodied voice – possibly imagined, perhaps ghostly and, in one case, recorded onto tape. Pamela Rabe, Paul Blackwell and Peter Carroll are brilliant as the central characters of their respective pieces, conveying the mood and theme of the performance as is required. The necessary additional voice work is delivered by Sandy Gore (Footfalls) and Pamela Rabe (Eh Joe). The delivery and sound quality of the off-stage voices is fundamental to each work; it is vital if one is to gain any emotional insight to where our characters have come from, where they are, and where they might be headed. The design and lighting are, for all three, staggeringly beautiful. This is theatre at its aural and visual best. The performance requires audience members to travel from stage to stage, enjoying a journey through seldom-seen corridors of the Playhouse/Space building. This is a novel treat for theatre-goers. If you are looking for something with a simple, linear plot, this may not be for you. If you are looking for Beckett, you’ll find him here. David Robinson Beckett Triptych continues at State Theatre Company Scenic Workshop & Rehearsal Room - Adelaide Festival Centre at various times until Sun Mar 15. Book at BASS on 131 241 or bass.net.au. Click HERE to purchase your tickets.