Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The magnetic Stephen Rea is quietly devastating in a meticulous staging of Beckett’s KRAPP’S LAST TAPE

• By drediman
• October 16, 2025
• No Comments

This fall, New York seems to be awash in the theatrical works of Samuel Beckett. A few weeks ago, Jamie Lloyd’s starry revival of Waiting for Godot opened on Broadway (you can read my impressions of the production here), and now we have the great Irish actor Stephen Rea in a very limited run of Landmark Productions’ high profile production of Krapp’s Last Tape at NYU Skirball (later this autumn, Irish Arts Center will be playing host to Druid’s Garry Hynes-helmed staging of Endgame). I’m not at all surprised about this resurgence of Beckett’s plays, however — such topsy-turvy times as our own call for the intense existential scrutiny of our lives afforded by these timeless creations.

In short, the compact play depicts the solitary existence of a 69-year-old man, who spends much of his latter days listening to audio recordings of his younger, more romantically-inclined self. Despite its briefness — Krapp’s Last Tape runs only 50 minutes in length — Beckett’s play about memory, mortality, and the inevitable passing of time is a complete theatrical and dramatic statement unto itself. Generally speaking, one of the primary beauties of Beckett’s works is their prismatic nature. Indeed, the playwright’s stark poetry and emotional nakedness speak differently to audiences at various stages of their lives and points in history. The distilled nature of the play makes its every moment a grand gesture — from the peeling of a banana, to the hot flashes of exasperation — wherein we more keenly feel the slippery ephemerality of not only the act of making theater, but also our very lives.

Vicky Featherstone’s meticulous production — a haunting apparition that emerges from the darkness and returns to it — draws you in with its minimalism and sublime attention to detail. Just as carefully calibrated is Rea’s rigorous, magnetic performance — his use of silence, sense of timing, and subtle physicality are masterful — of a man caught between the deadening void of the present (and the future) and the ghostly remembrances of the past and his past self. What makes the actor’s turn so brilliant is how transparently he conveys being on the fence as to whether his three-decades-younger self disgusts him or enthralls him. There’s also a thread of neglected regret that runs through his performance, and it’s quietly devastating to witness.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

KRAPP’S LAST TAPE
Off-Broadway, Theater
NYU Skirball
50 minutes (without an intermission)
Through October 19