Samuel Beckett’s play to put audience in the dark

LONDON — Playwright Samuel Beckett described his 1957 radio play All That Fall as “a text written to come out of the dark”. A new theatre production will take that description literally.

The play will be staged in a pitch-black auditorium, with the lights turned off and black-out blinds installed.

Seven actors will sit in the midst of the audience, but theatregoers will be able to only hear, not see, them. It is a production that has the seal of approval from Beckett’s notoriously protective estate, who believes the playwright would have loved the conceit.

The play is a highlight of this year’s Enniskillen International Beckett Festival, which begins in July, in the Northern Irish town where Beckett spent his formative years.

It is a co-production between the Out of Joint Theatre Company and Max Stafford-Clark, the acclaimed director.

“Beckett’s estate is fierce in its protection,” said Stafford-Clark. “I got a letter from Edward Beckett (the playwright’s nephew and executor of his estate saying, ‘What is your vision for the play?’ I replied that there was absolutely no vision at all. The whole thing takes place in the dark.

“He said that was exactly how Beckett had imagined it — with voices coming from the void. It was gratifying to learn that was how he himself had conceived it.

He added: “It will be as dark as fire regulations will allow. It’s very much an experiment for the audience and an experiment for me, too.”

All That Fall is the tale of an old woman who sets off to meet her husband at the railway station and experiences a series of encounters along the way.

It was staged in the West End in 2012 with Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon in the lead roles, but the Beckett estate demanded for it to be a “visualised radio play” — no props and the actors reading from scripts.

Other highlights of the festival include a production of Waiting For Godot by The Berliner Ensemble and productions of The Wasteland and the rarely seen Ohio Impromptu. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH