Review: Spoonface Steinberg/Krapp’s Last Tape

Samuel Beckett was pretty clear about his stage directions. He is not to be toyed with.

Those who control the Beckett estate are as fiercely protective of his work as he was. Much of Beckett’s work is short and sharp, which to ensure audiences don’t feel short-changed, often calls for it to be performed alongside other plays as a double bill. Because of the writer’s very clear instructions, his work is only ever performed alongside that other titan of British theatre, Harold Pinter. Until now.

That Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall has been chosen as the first playwright other than Pinter to be staged alongside Beckett is a serious feather in the cap – and, with his play Spoonface Steinberg, it is an honour entirely earned.

The monologue of a young autistic girl, who is dying from cancer, began its dazzlingly successful life as a radio play. It went on to be voted one of the 10 greatest radio dramas of all time and it is easy to see why.

The play is a heartbreaking, stunningly poetic and never mawkish as the girl relates her story in a simple way and Hall allows it to slowly unfold.

Spoonface Steinberg has enjoyed successful runs in the West End, so it seems it can work as a stage play – but it doesn’t really do so here.

Pippa Duffy plays the only role beautifully and truthfully, but to have her stand in front of a microphone and tell the story is to simply forget that this is a theatre space.

The production gets absolutely swallowed up by Hull Truck’s main auditorium. It is a treat to hear the story, but the production is sadly overwhelmed by the space.

In Krapp’s Last Tape, Alan Williams brings a much more physical performance to the space, dominating it and bringing it to life. His clowning and doleful eyes command attention far better than Duffy manages in the first half of the double bill.

As a production, Beckett’s work is more assured of its space in the theatre and Alan Williams as Krapp brings home the sense of a man wrestling with the point – and pointlessness of his existence – and recording his thoughts as he contemplates the coming end. Work as good as this ought to feel more satisfying.

To April 28.