All That Fall

Samuel Beckett’s one-act radio play All That Fall has been adapted for live performances taking place in Bristol and London next March – but with a twist.

Audiences will be blindfolded for the duration of the show, as the cast move about them in the auditorium, their voices enhanced by sound designer Dyfan Jones.

All That Fall is playing at Bristol Old Vic from 8th to 12th March and Wilton’s Music Hall from 22nd March to 9th April.

Tony Award-winner Bríd Brennan (Dancing at Lughnasa) will play the lead character Maddy Rooney.

Synopsis

“It is a text written to come out of the dark” said Samuel Beckett of his mysterious, tragicomic first radio play.

All That Fall is one of Beckett’s naturalistic plays, and was inspired by his native Foxrock in Ireland. An unpredictable tale, it charts the faltering journey of elderly Maddy Rooney as she ventures along a country road to surprise her blind husband at the train station for his birthday treat.

Along the way she is helped and hindered by a series of characters; but when she is united with her husband, she is confronted with a strange and harrowing event that makes him seem a stranger.

More about All That Fall

First broadcast in 1957, All That Fall was the first time Beckett centred his work on a female protagonist.

The 2016 production is directed by Max Stafford-Clark, who commented: “Ever since I first read All That Fall, I yearned to direct this hour long play which marries his darkly comic genius to a particularity of social observation and makes for a rich, hilarious and stunning evening.”

Ticket information

Group travel organisers booking at the Bristol Old Vic will receive discounted rates for parties of ten or more.

For further information visit www.bristololdvic.org.uk or www.wiltons.org.uk.