A one?man workshop production which both starred a faculty actor and was directed by a Tufts faculty member - "Krapp's Last Tape" - was performed on Tuesday March 12 and Wednesday March 13. The Samuel Beckett play starred Drama and Dance professor Laurence Senelick. Besides being a professor at Tufts, Senelick has also authored and edited more than 25 books.
Noe Montez, an assistant professor who joined Tufts' drama department after serving as a dramaturge and freelance director, directed the play. The 45?minute production was well executed by this talented duo.
The physical simplicity of this one?act play was portrayed through a set that had only the essentials: a desk, an old tape recorder and some bananas. Despite having minimal props and solitary actor, the story still seeked to question more complicated issues, such as memory and age. The entire plot shows a juxtaposition of simple and complex, light and dark, past and present.
Although Senelick's performance as the title character Krapp was convincing, the script itself was relatively unimpressive. For one, the beginning moments, during which Krapp becomes frustrated by his banana and later falls on a peel he has thrown to the floor, were driven by infantile humor that lacked creative wit. The play was sprinkled with many of these stunts that sought to bring out laughter from the audience while using minimal effort in terms of language. What was even more concerning was the hearty laughter that actually did result from the audience. It seemed that the play wanted to call attention to the reality of memory loss that comes with old age, and the fact that audience members cackled at the supposed stupidity of the actor seemed to nullify the very message of the play. Instead of thinking about why we are laughing, and the fact that we should not be, we just continued on in bliss.
Still, the play did successfully explore the nuances of emotions versus memories. Though it seems natural to think that once memories are lost they will not come back, "Krapp's Last Tape" showed otherwise. The play depicted Krapp's progression from a clearly aged man who seemed to be a stranger to his own words, to someone who was able to successfully reignite his feelings of happiness and loss when listening to his previous recordings. Senelick exhibited Krapp's realization quite beautifully and poignantly.
Other strong moments of the play included the way it came full circle. At the play's start, the lights came up extremely slowly, and at the end, dimmed in very much the same manner. This use of light perhaps symbolized whether Krapp would regress to his state of ignorance once again, despite the emotional journey he had just taken. Small details such as this, and the use of baby powder dust to subtly hint at the age of his household items, were tastefully used in the production, counteracting the less impressive humor throughout.
Still, as a whole, the play's able?bodied cast was hindered by its script. The concept was novel, yes, but the lack of variation in scene and humor made the 45 minutes seem much longer.
