All That Fall – Sydney Festival

Overview

If the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Waiting for Godot has left you hankering for more Beckett, Sydney Festival's All That Fall may quench your theatrical thirst, stepping in to continue the homage to a man as elusive as his plays.

Irish company Pan Pan Theatre (Oedipus Loves You, Fight the Landlord) will return to Sydney to present their acclaimed rendition of Samuel Beckett’s rarely performed 1957 radio play, All That Fall. Featuring 60 rocking chairs bathed in light, this unconventional listening party offers an immersive theatrical experience that's all audience, no stage.

Surrounded by the voices of an aging Irish woman and her townspeople, expect a black comedy, a murder mystery, a cryptic literary riddle and a quasimusical score. In spite of the absence of visual performers, the impressive soundscape and award-winning lighting design are said to keep you fixated.

This imaginative method of storytelling offers up a theatrical atmosphere that is totally unique. In the dim chamber, it is the audience members that take on the spirit of performance, hanging on every word of Beckett's bleak humour. This radical, communal production is almost like having a cast of characters inside your head, or being inside theirs.