Krapp's Last Tape

Last night, I went to see Krapp's Last Tape in the Gate Theatre, Dublin, with Michael Gambon in the title role. Woah.

From the opening, when Krapp's hand comes slowly up from underneath the desk to rub his head and scratch his hair (and I was sitting there thinking about how to convey the 'handness of hands' as he did so well), to the closing scene with Krapp sitting there, aghast, resigned, displaying all the gamut of emotion and none, simultaneously - I was truly spellbound in the second row. The one hour one-hander felt like fifteen minutes in the presence of someone very, very good at what they do.

Fintan O'Toole of the Irish Times must have been at it last night too - his review is far more eloquent than I ever could be, describing Gambon as 'an alchemist of the soul'. I know one thing he doesn't though: last night was really, really special - I saw tears in Michael Gambon's eyes as he took three curtain calls. That's what you get for sitting in the second row..