Michael Gambon is to return to the London stage this autumn when he stars in Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape at the Duchess theatre from 15 September to 20 November.
The production, directed by Michael Colgan, transfers from Dublin’s Gate theatre, where it received much acclaim earlier in the year.
The one-man show is the story of Krapp who, every year on his birthday, sits down to record his memories of the last year. On his 69th birthday he takes a step further into the past. Listening to his old recordings, he soon stumbles upon a single tender memory from long ago that sparks a growing regret as he starts to question whether his present lives up to his past.
Krapp’s Last Tape will be the third Beckett piece Gambon has brought to the London stage in recent years following Eh Joe in 2006 and Endgame in 2004. More recently the actor, known to many as Hogwarts’ Headmaster Dumbledore, appeared in Pinter’s No Man’s Land opposite David Bradley and David Walliams in 2008.
The Duchess theatre is currently hosting two-hander The Secret Of Sherlock Holmes. The tale of Conan Doyle’s famous detective and his closest friend and ally Doctor Watson plays until 11 September. Following Krapp’s Last Tape, the theatre welcomes another transfer. The musical stage adaptation of Love Story, which wowed audiences in Chichester earlier in the year, opens on 6 December.
MA