• Not I, Footfalls & Rockaby @ The Mac

    September 10, 2014 - By 

    In theatrical terms, Lisa Dwan’s trilogy of playwright Samuel Beckett’s celebrated short plays at The MAC represented a significant first, and in all likelihood, a last. The actress’s stated intention to retire from performing ‘Not I’ by the end of 2015 means that these handful of Belfast shows had an added spice. It’s hardly surprising that Dwan can see the finishing line for her role as Mouth, as the emotional, technical and psychological demands must surely exact a price. Head strapped to a board, eyes and ears covered, arms immobilized, enveloped in total darkness – this is sensory deprivation taken…

  • Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby by Samuel Beckett @ The MAC

    July 28, 2014 - By 

    From September 2 to September 6, The Mac, Belfast, will present three classic plays by Samuel Beckett, executed in just one-hour long, rarely performed, piece. Not I is an intense monologue, set in a pitch-black space lit by a single beam of light. A disembodied female mouth floats eight feet above the stage and delivers a stream of consciousness, spoken, as Beckett directed, at the speed of thought. Footfalls tells the moving story of May, a ghostly figure who paces back and forth like a metronome outside her dying mother’s room. Completing the trilogy is Rockaby – probably the most famous…