'Krapp' muses age, neglect

By Johanna Ohm     2/22/12 6:00pm

Audience members nestle onto a brown leather couch, sit perched on pillows strewn across the floor or stand just inside the hanging black curtains that separate the stage from the Duncan College Commons as they await the start of Duncan Theatre + Arts' rendition of Krapp's Last Tape. On stage is a man sitting pensively across from a tape recorder. The audience has entered Krapp's den.

The play begins with Krapp, played by McMurtry College sophomore Nick Vollmar, fumbling through the drawers of his table and finding a banana. In silence, the audience watches as he eats the discovered fruit in a meditative, and rather blatantly sexual, way. With an unusual and silent start, those unfamiliar with Samuel Beckett's work begin to wonder if metaphysical banana-eating and strange methodical glances over an outdated tape recorder will be the extent of this one-man, one-act play. Finally, Krapp speaks. "Ah! Box ... three ... spool ... five," and we are launched into the tragic story of a man past his prime, living in solitude save for the recorded tapes of his younger self.

The audience comes to realize that Krapp is a sad picture of old age and neglect, a man who talks to younger versions of himself via tape and who seems to enjoy the self-torture of memory by replaying his own narratives from times when he was a younger, happier man. Through the tapes, with the recorded voice of Duncan freshman Ben Huber, we hear about women he has loved, the loss of his mother and moments with a pet dog. Even more tragically, the moments we hear feel as new to us as they do to Krapp, whose memory, somehow faded, is dependent on the tapes for more than personal amusement.  The play is tragic, yet Krapp's childlike excitement at the word "spool" delights the audience, adding a more bittersweet feel to the play.  

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The play, written by Samuel Beckett in the late 1950s, was codirected by Duncan juniors Philomena Bradford and Lisa Biletska. One of Bradford's English professors encouraged her to direct the play after having directed another Beckett piece, Catastrophe, for a course project. Bradford cites a lack of avant-garde theater at Rice as another source of motivation for choosing Beckett. As far as directing a one-act, one-actor play, Bradford said it was in some ways easier and in some ways much harder than directing more ?traditional plays.

"I read the play, and I have an exact image of what it's [going to be] like on the stage. It's just a matter of creating it that can be challenging," ?Bradford said.

Krapp's Last Tape was an exciting piece, suggesting to the audience  that there is another type of theater worthy of notice that lies outside of stuffy theaters with formal settings, multiple acts and elaborate props.

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