Theatre legend and all-round national treasure Max Gillies first played the eponymous hero of Samuel Beckett’s one-man play for actor and tape recorder as a university student in the 1960s. Last year, he returned to the role, playing Krapp in a sold out season to celebrate both the play’s 60th birthday and his own golden anniversary of that first performance.
Now he’s reprising it again for a return season at fortyfivedownstairs. The play follows the ageing Krapp, who on the eve of his 69th birthday prepares to make his annual recording of the highs and lows of his life. But while listening to a tape from his younger years, he is pulled into a web of memory and regrets. The play is considered to be the most autobiographical of Beckett’s plays, and will be directed by Laurence Strangio (Ellida).