We round up the reviews for this revival of the play, which sees Gary Oldman return to the theatre where he made his professional acting career.
The Guardian: **** “Oldman becomes more vulnerable by inches. We listen intently to his character listening to himself. It is remarkable to build such intimacy in a space as big as this auditorium, but the beautiful, focused lighting by Malcolm Rippeth helps, along with crisp sound design by Tom Smith.”
The Daily Mail: **** “As spectacle, there’s not much on offer — although directing and designing the show, as well as acting in it, the star ensures he’s surrounded by an impressively packed attic junkyard.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “Oldman distinguishes precisely the old and young Krapp, vocally much stronger and more confident on tape, finding a sort of battered vehemence for the old man. The tape recorder enables him to present simultaneously three periods of a man’s life – and he does so with total conviction.”
All That Dazzles: *** “Strangely, Oldman has chosen to deviate from Beckett’s notoriously rigid script, telling an actor down to the very second how long to leave the stage for and drink, alone in the dark. Rather, Oldman stays seated; he also emits most of the comedy from the piece, with an early Charlie Chaplin banana peel-based gag being cut. Don’t get me wrong, do what you want with Beckett, I hate that productions (in many famous cases, have a Google) are legally required to stick to the letter of Beckett’s writing, but the choice to cut the small glimmers of light and air in an otherwise dense play feels misguided.”
The Telegraph: *** “Back on the stage where he made his theatre debut in 1979, the Slow Horses star pours everything into Beckett’s bleak masterpiece.”
NorthernSoul.me.uk: **** “This is as fine a production of Krapp’s Last Tape as you are ever likely to see, which is quite a feat when you know it was designed, directed and performed by one person: Gary Oldman.”
York Press.co.uk: **** “Krapp’s Last Tape remains a Marmite play; Oldman can’t change that, but more than anything it will provoke debate that goes deeper than whether he peels a banana the right way.”
Northern Arts Review: ***** “You feel that you have sat watching something so extraordinary, you may never see the like again – yet it is so difficult to explain to people exactly why.”
The Stage: **** “Gary Oldman is a devastatingly stoic Krapp in his own production of the Beckett classic at York Theatre Royal.”
British Theatre Guide: “But you should not be disappointed if you’re keen to experience a truthful, wistful, resonant production of Beckett’s brilliant rumination.”
The Reviews Hub: **** 1/2 “Oldman now joins a lineage of greats – Gambon, Hurt, Pinter – who’ve stepped into Krapp’s shoes. But he brings his own distinct fragility, a kind of cracked grandeur. In a role where there’s “very little to do,” Oldman does a lot. This is a Samuel Beckett dream play for actors of a certain age – and, in Oldman’s hands, a haunting, hypnotic gift to the audience – to love or be bewildered by, it’s a choice he leaves them with.”
Yorkshire Post: **** “The nature of the play means that it is at its atmospheric best in a studio theatre where the audience feel like part of Krapp hoard. Despite Simon Kenny’s beautifully chaotic set, it inevitably loses some of its intimacy in a main house. However, as well as being a trip down memory lane for Oldman this is also a commercial coup for York and the sell-out performances (tickets are now return only) are, financially at least, worth the compromise.”
West End Best Friend: **** “Krapp’s Last Tape is a very different play to what you might expect to see a major star of the screen in, yet it still feels incredibly special to see Gary Oldman delivering an authentic and entirely captivating performance on the stage where he made his acting debut many decades ago. We can only hope that another project comes along soon that may tempt him back to the stage once again.”
For more information visit: https://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/krapps-last-tape/