Aww Krapp!

(http://groovysweet.wordpress.com/tag/fried-bananas-webcomic/page/4/)

          Krapp's Last Tape is definitely up there on my list of favorite Beckett plays to watch. It amazes me that a ten page script can be turned into a production that is almost an hour long. It just proves that sometimes stage directions are just as important (if not even more important) than what the actors actually say. As an actress myself this is something that I have come to know very well. 

          I remember the first time that one of my high school acting friends told me about the play Krapp's Last Tape. The first thing she said was. "It's just this old guy listening to prerecorded tapes of himself talking, and then he eats some bananas." My first thought was, "Well that has to be one of the easiest roles that an actor could ever play. Hardly any lines to memorize, and you get to sit around and eat." Boy was I wrong. In fact, Krapp is probably one of the more difficult roles that an actor could ever play. As we saw in the film, timing is everything. An actor must learn how to properly use silence in a scene. This may sound like a funny idea, but it is actually really important. If a pause is too long it will feel awkward to the audience. However, if a pause is too short, then it may not give the audience time to process the silence and note the meaning behind it. In a play that is as stage direction heavy as this one, it is also important for the actor to pay close attention to every direction and find the meaning behind it. You may have heard actors in sitcoms jokingly say, "What's my motivation?" before. Well in this case that is a serious question that the actor must consider. If an actor does not figure out the character's reasoning behind his actions, then the ten page script will either produce a ten minute play, or a long and boring play where a man just walks around and does stuff. 

          Beckett was always very particular about the way that his plays were put on, and I believe he had a good reason to be like that. It is because there is so much meaning to be found where there are no words to convey it. If the blocking and timing are not perfect, then meaning is lost. It is amazing how much the way that a man eats a banana can tell you about him. I believe that Beckett knew this, and it is one of the things that makes his plays so intriguing to me.