REVIEW: Krapp’s Last Tape at The Cockpit 2 – 5 September 2026
‘Spine-tingling stuff; as meta as it gets’ ★★★★
Samuel Beckett’s one-man monologue about old age and memory, written in 1958, is an existential classic. Always being performed somewhere in the world, its history has seen some notable performances including Michael Gambon, Harold Pinter, John Hurt and Max Wall. With a reel-to-reel tape deck, Krapp listens to his younger self at different ages and reflects on his formative experiences — the thoughts that preoccupied him: love, death, work, but most of all love.
What makes this production unique is that veteran performer Peter Marinker, 85, has Alzheimer’s, a condition that progressively degrades memory and strips away the cognitive ability to draw on the past. This is not a performer acting an elderly man remembering; this is the real thing. And while the words and play are distinctly Beckett's, the experience we witness is Marinker's — a sobering reality that is both fascinating and discomforting, praiseworthy and anxiety-inducing.
The choice to cast Marinker and spotlight the condition is courageous and unconventional, rewriting the rules of making and watching theatre. Being able to remember direction and dialogue is key to acting, but Alzheimer’s puts pay to this. In order for Marinker to fulfill the role, he’s supported by audible in-ear directions, spoken from behind a screen, on stage. The audience hears every instruction and sees Marinker follow the cues. There are two people in this monologue: Marinker and his on-stage memory and throughout the 55-minute performance, there is a constant tension between agency and vulnerability.
Initially disconcerting, this choice takes the viewer out of the moment, something most directors usually avoid at all costs. The overarching effect is of a life-sized marionette being guided through every move which leaves viewers to reflect more on the toll Alzheimer’s takes than on Krapp’s taste for bananas or his fascination with the word ‘spool’. To add poignancy to pathos, the recorded voice we hear is also Peter Marinker, playing Krapp at 41. His younger self has a lighter, brighter Irish lilt in contrast to the more hesitant, gravelly Marinker who shuffles and creaks around in a grey robe and slippers in this production.
While the traditional ‘illusion’ of theatre is broken and part of its construction revealed, what we gain in this interpretation, directed by David Wybrow, is the revelation of theatre as a collaborative discipline that can enable, support and give access to the arts. Also, we are left with the sense of generosity and love; theatre as family, one that closes in as the lights fade, to hold hands and bid farewell. This is spine-tingling stuff; as meta as it gets. This isn’t just a performance of Krapp’s Last Tape. This is the real thing. Welcome to Beckett in the age of Alzheimer’s.
Krapp’s Last Tape is at The Cockpit 2 - 5 September 2026 as part of Cockpit Productions
Tickets: https://tickets.thecockpit.org.uk/sales/shows/krapps-last-tape
Produced and presented by The Cockpit
Sponsored by Loudwater Partners
Photography Credit: Chris Lincé for Stagefright Films
