Overview
A voyeuristic prefiguring of Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape,” and a hilarious and heart-breaking window on the last moments of youth. Reeling on his 39th birthday, an actor’s obsessive identification with Beckett’s famous character compels him to examine his own quixotic life: his fears, his failures, and his search for (and forfeiture of) love, all in preparation to record a version of the 39-year-old Krapp’s soliloquy to be used in an imagined production of “Krapp’s Last Tape” thirty years in the future.
Casting & Production
Casting
ACTOR — M or F, 39 years old
Recorded Voices:
DIRECTOR — M or F, a friend of the Actor and the director of the show.
OLD FRIEND — M or F, a friend of the Actor.
MAMA — F, the Actor’s mother.
Setting
Place
ACTOR’s rehearsal studio.
Time
This very night. ACTOR’s 39th birthday.
Reviews
“A beautifully shaped, beautifully revealed work… Tremendously poignant, “KRAPP, 39” has a sort of intoxicating fatalism, considerable humor and it’s an even funnier, more enlightening experience the second time around.”
—The New York Times, “Critic’s Pick”
“KRAPP, 39 is a moving and wise retrospective of a man’s soul: An homage to the self that somehow doesn’t feel selfish.”
—Time Out NY, “Critic’s Pick”
“KRAPP, 39 is no mere Beckett riff—it’s a thoughtful response, a valuable contribution… A thing of startling, wounding beauty.”
—The Village Voice
“Laurence creates a funny and lacerating self-portrait that earns its affiliation with the classic that inspired it.”
—The New Yorker
Media
