All That Fall – REVIEW – 9 Oct 2022 ***1/2

THEATRE

A radio play by Samuel Beckett

At La Mama HQ, Carlton, until Sun 16 Oct 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:***1/2

This review published only on this blog. I plan to talk about it on Arts Weekly on 3MBS  on Sat 22 Oct, 2022. KH

Carole Patullo pic Melissa Violet

All That Fall, by Samuel Beckett the writer of Waiting for Godot, was commissioned for radio in 1956 but this is a stage production that gives the flavour of a 1950s radio play performed with the immediacy of a live theatre audience.

 

The production of this dark comedy, deftly directed by Melanie Beddie, is wickedly funny, absurd and poignant in similar ways to other Beckett plays. 

 

It is set in a village south of Dublin and tracks the path of a crusty old Irish woman, Mrs. Maddie Rooney (Carole Patullo), as she embarks on her laborious journey on foot to meet her husband at the station on his birthday.

We witness the actors reading from scripts and, as well hearing the sound effects, we are treated to seeing their creation by the cast using a motley array of bangers, clangers, whistles and other items. Walking feet crunch on boxes of stones, trains blow their whistles and rattle on rails, wind blows and voices produce the bleat of lambs, the mooing of cows and a donkey's bray. It adds a dimension that would be missing if the sound effects were created invisibly by audio technology.

 

Patullo is delightful as the sour-faced misery-guts, Mrs Rooney, shifting from hilariously brusque rudeness to face-crumpling despair and echoes of her past grief. “Have you no respect for misery?” she grumbles to one of the people she passes on the road, a comment that draws tears from Mrs. Rooney but elicits laughter from the audience. Beckett loves to laugh at the existential pain of his characters.

 

The rest of the cast, playing multiple characters, populate the scene with a parade of quirky characters on the road and at the station, all of whom try to avoid Mrs. Rooney’s bleating and whining. These characters include Christy the dung carter (Jane Bayly), Mr Tyler the cyclist (Dan O’Halloran), Mr. Slocum in his motor car (Tom Considine), a station master (Considine), a porter (O’Halloran) and a religious lady (Bayly). Director Beddie and stage manager Kit Carrington play miscellaneous other voices.

Carole Patullo, Tom Considine pic Melissa Violet

 

Finally, we meet Mr Rooney, a blind, gruff and grumpy old man who is unable – or unwilling? – to speak while he walks or walk while he speaks. Some mysterious event delayed Mr Rooney’s train’s arrival but he stubbornly avoids explaining the stoppage to his wife. The revelation of the reason for the stoppage explains much that has been unsaid about Mrs Rooney’s past loss and enduring grief.

 

The accents are a bit uneven, but we forgive this because the performances and the play are engaging and deliciously, wickedly Beckettian.

 

by Kate Herbert

 

Cast: Carole Patullo, Tom Considine, Jane Bayly, Dan O’Halloran, Melanie Beddie

Director Melanie Beddie

Lighting – Bronwyn Pringle

Sound Design Jane Bayly

Carole Patullo, Tom Considine pic Melissa Violet