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Krapp's Last Tape @ Stratford

Brian Dennehy pulls double duty in Stratford.

Aug 27, 2008 Mike Mackenzie

In Krapp's Last Tape at the 2008 Stratford Shakespeare Festival, it's all about actor Brian Dennehy. It's easy to see why he's become a legend in theatre circles.

This isn't simply because Brian Dennehy is the only person on the stage throughout Krapp's Last Tape, but because his stage presence and engaging performance bring the audience into the desolate world that Samuel Beckett, with help from Jennifer Tarver, has crafted.

Krapp's Last Tape takes place in an almost empty room, where there is simply a table, a chair, and a reel-to-reel tape machine, a microphone, and a stack of reels. Krapp digs out an old catalogue, detailing what each reel holds, in search of one – can number three, reel number five. Not a word is spoken for the first few minutes – only the sound of Krapp eating a banana, grunting, or making low, indestingushable sounds.

When Krapp finally finds the reel he has been looking for, he places it on the machine and begins to listen to a recording of himself at age 39, rambling on about life and love, and the promise of his future. As we can tell, things haven't panned out for Krapp as well as his 39-year-old self thought they would.

It's hard to hand all the credit over to Dennehy for this magnificent performance – some due must be paid to Beckett, and some to Toronto director Jennifer Tarver. Beckett has created a world where the character, the only character, doesn't have to speak to convey his message of pain and loss. This wonderful script, along with Tarver's slick direction, make this a theatrical piece for the ages.

Tarver seems to have kept a strict eye on details and the simple things, without allowing the production to become boring and stagnant. She succeeds greatly. With Dennehy, she has crafted a beautiful piece of theatre, and is a real tribute to the work that she has done in the past several years in Toronto.

Regardless of what might be said of the set, the lighting, the direction or the play itself, Krapp's Last Tape truly belongs to Brian Dennehy. His performance is nothing short of captivating, to the point where several audience members seemed to move closer and closer to the front of their chairs as the play went on. Dennehy's performance is one of the most captivating this reviewer has, and probably will, ever see. From start to finish, you are enthralled by the work of a true craftsman. You come to understand quickly how remarkable he is, and how fortunate the Stratford Shakespeare Festival is to have Dennehy grace their stage for two hours every other day.

I consider it an honour and a privilege to have shared the same air as Dennehy, if only for a couple of hours, and to have shared in the magnificence of these two wonderful pieces of theatre, by two – make that three theatre legends.

If you can somehow find a ticket to the final week of this set of plays, you should pay whatever it takes to see one of the best actors of any generation share the stage with these two monumental playwrights. You will not be disappointed.

Krapp's Last Tape and Hughie

Playing until August 31st, 2008, at the Studio Theatre at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

***** (out of five)

The copyright of the article Krapp's Last Tape @ Stratford in Modern World Theatre is owned by Mike Mackenzie. Permission to republish Krapp's Last Tape @ Stratford in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.