Following Samuel Beckett’s death, his estate has insisted that productions of his plays are faithful to his stage directions as well as his words, as Deborah Warner – who longs to do ‘Waiting for Godot’ with Fiona Shaw and Maggie Smith – has found to her cost. But Peter Brook has been given greater latitude in these very short sketches that have been collected together under the title of ‘Fragments’. In ‘Rockaby’, the words are not recorded as written but rather spoken live by Kathryn Hunter; in ‘Act Without Words II’, the goad that should be ‘strictly horizontal’ descends from above and looks like a cricket stump; and, most surprisingly of all, in ‘Come and Go’, two of the women are played by the Little and Large of physical theatre – Marcello Magni and Jos Houben.
It’s not Brook’s fault that there’s always an air of hushed reverence before his productions begin. Of the five pieces, the first ‘Rough for Theatre I’ especially struggles to make much of an impact in such an atmosphere as Magni as a blind violinist and Houben as a cripple explore a mutually dependent relationship that is reminiscent of ‘Endgame’. Both Beckett and Brook are minimalists but here Brook’s improvisatory production contrasts uncomfortably with Beckett’s perfectionism. Later, Hunter is as striking as ever in ’Rockaby’, by far the most profound of the pieces. She looks like a wizened elf, visibly shrinking into her chair as she repeats her incantation.
Finally, ‘Come and Go’ is unexpectedly funny. Usually performed as a ritualistic piece of theatre, here the three performers, luridly dressed in ’50s coats and squashed hats, are a joy to watch as one by one they register a whispered piece of scurrilous gossip. No doubt these pieces would be fine as part of a festival, but on their own they feel very exposed.
