Angela Pleasence gives as lively a take as is reasonably possible on Beckett's half-buried heroine Winnie. Submerged in a huge heap of collapsed cardboard packing-cases, she compensates for her physical immobility by introducing a remarkable facial and vocal variety to the games and rituals that Winnie uses to get her through "another heavenly day". The set suggests an urban apocalypse rather than any private hell. Some of the script's gags are bizarrely glossed over or just plain ignored, and the production is almost, but not quite, far enough removed from Beckett's original vision to attract the attention of his hyper-protective estate; but as a piece of theatre on its own terms, it remains as potent as you could wish.
Written for The Independent.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
Return to index of reviews for the year 1995