This was my first exposure to Beckett, either on stage or on the page, and it left an impression. Four characters - Hamm, Clov, Nagg and Nell - enacting (playing out) what does indeed seem to be an extended dying fall, the setting a derelict house in some unspecified but almost certainly ruined landscape, the themes existential, and staged with a strong sense of the grotesque. At times the language takes on genuinely Shakespearean cadences, albeit considerably contemporised; at others, the back-and-forth reminded me of the exchanges in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead; it's perfectly pitched and paced, bleakly funny and occasionally hinting at the profound.
This was an impressive production, too - there's a strong thread to it, from the opening violin strains in pitch dark through the use of the traverse stage in the tiny (60-seat) theatre, and the actors were strikingly good (particularly Peter Houghton as Hamm).
(w/ Ruth, Emrys, Vegjie, Sunny and Keith)
