Jermyn Street theatre, London
Pacing endlessly and rocking towards the big sleep, Siân Phillips and Charlotte Emmerson’s performances make this evening deeply affecting
This no-frills cellar theatre is becoming one of our best spaces to see and hear Beckett. After Trevor Nunn’s triple bill in 2020 comes an intelligent pairing directed by Richard Beecham, who aligns the routines that comfort two women – one pacing nine steps, the other rocking towards the big sleep. It is a brief (40 minutes) but deeply affecting evening, with ghostly performances by Charlotte Emmerson and, in mostly recorded speeches, Siân Phillips, whose slicked silvery hair evokes, in this half-light, the playwright himself.
Simon Kenny squeezes two complementary sets on to the stage: a raised walkway for Footfalls and a cube for Rockaby, both structures outlined with tubes of white light. A reflection within the auditorium makes it appear as if May (Emmerson) walks an endless corridor in the former, while the cube suggests the window position of the unnamed woman (Phillips) desperate to see and be seen.
At Jermyn Street theatre, London, until 20 November. Then at the Ustinov Studio, Bath, 24 November–4 December.