Looking back on a life not well-lived
A lonely old man makes an amazing journey of regret in Beckett’s retrospective tale
In Krapp’s Last Tape, the title character indulges in his annual ritual: looking back on his life while listening to a recording made by his younger self.
But even as the 69-year-old Krapp listens to and judges his 39-year-old self, so too do we hear the 39-year-old Krapp judging yet a younger version of himself.
“He looks on his past self with disdain: ‘Foolishness, foolishness, foolishness. If only I knew then what I know now,’” said Linden Banks, who plays the character in Samuel Beckett’s one-man play.
“And as the 69-year-old commenting on the 39-yearold, he’s in his extreme after-midnight moments. But, in terms of the audience perspective, it’s an amazing trek, an amazing journey. Beckett has given us an opportunity to look at three periods of this person’s life and see that progression.”
Krapp’s Last Tape kicks off Seven Tyrants Theatre’s new season. David Thomas Newham is directing, as well as handling lighting and set design.
One theme of the 1958 play is how priorities change during the course of a life. Or, as the anonymous author of the Wiki entry on the play puts it: “Each can see clearly the fool he was but only time will reveal what kind of fool he has become.”
“Of course, at the moment we make decision, they’re the right ones at the time, they’re the correct things that we feel that we should do,” Banks said.
“It’s only with this great hindsight we can access how that actually panned out for us. In his case, none of these things have really panned out for him.”
For Krapp, his most devastating decision was to “reject love and sacrifice that for his career and sense of self,” Banks said.
“Here he is at 69, having come to the realization that was the biggest mistake he ever made in his life. And he made it 30 years ago. And he’s only coming to this realization. He’s alone and very disgruntled with this decision and how it’s affected him.”
To make the tape that the character listens to, Banks had to put the 69-year-old version out of his mind.
“Making the tape was almost like doing a separate play,” said the actor, who is 65.
“Anything in the script pertaining to the life of that character has to be set aside. We went through the play to get the sense of its meaning and how we would interpret it, and then focused completely on the life of the 39-year-old Krapp, and approaching it from that singular standpoint.”
The voice had to change, so he sounded younger.
“The 39-year-old is more upbeat. Aside from the voice, the stance that he takes is a little more pompous and full of himself and he’s quite self-assured and adamant about his decisions. That was a whole other aspect of the character that doesn’t exist in the 69-year-old.”
Krapp’s Last Tape is the first Beckett play for Banks, whose credits include Seven Tyrants’ Beggar’s Opera and Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol (for which he was nominated for a Jessie). It’s also the first production of Seven Tyrants’ first season at Tyrant Studios, located in the Penthouse Nightclub.
Does Banks see any irony in putting on a play about a single man looking back on his life on a stage above a strip club?
“It does have a certain touch of irony,” he said. “But another interesting aspect of this venue was that this was the upstairs club frequented by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday and Sammy Davis. It’s quite an honour to work in that space, knowing the connection it has to so many great artists over the years.”
Here he is at 69, having come to the realization that was the biggest mistake he ever made in his life.”
Linden Banks