Review: Samuel Beckett Shorts at King’s College Chapel

Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist, or so they say. Known for his “Theatre of the Absurd”, which grew increasingly abstract and minimalist over the course of his life, any good performance of his shorts is bound to test the audience, and test the audience this did.

On the 12th November, for one night only, King’s College Drama Society put together a 45-minute performance of three back-to-back Beckett shorts, including the three-person short “Catastrophe”, the atmospheric but somewhat difficult to follow “Ohio Impromptu”, and finally the deeply unsettling and excellently executed monologue “Not I”.

They performed twice consecutively, once at 7.30pm, and once at 9pm. Director Phil Tarrant was faithful to Beckett’s minimalist aspirations throughout, and as the cast stripped down in size with each new play, the performance became increasingly unnerving – the show concluded with “Not I”, starring Maia von Malaisé, in which the only thing that seen throughout the performance was the lead actress’ mouth as illuminated by a spotlight. Without us ever laying eyes on her once, she truly stole the show, and the decision to perform the shorts in order of decreasing cast size was brilliant: the final moment when the lights went down was infinitely more impactful, with the audience left disorientated and alone.

Michael Schwimmer in Ohio Impromptu. Image credit: Alex Teeuw

Indeed, King’s College Chapel is an uncommon venue for a Cambridge play, but it worked fantastically for such eerie and abstract pieces of theatre. The use of lighting was particularly effective in such a huge building – every time the audience was plunged into complete darkness in the echo chamber that is the chapel, you could have heard a pin drop. But most atmospheric of all were the sound effects the building naturally produces: every word spoken echoed endlessly around the empty corners, and every sentence rang clearly in your head for minutes afterwards.

Maia von Malaisé in “Not I”. Image source: Alex Teeuw

However, the structure of the plays did become a little difficult to follow at times, as the ending of each play was not always immediately evident. Perhaps this was partly due to transition difficulties which naturally arise in a venue designed with a completely different purpose in mind, but although this might not have been a problem at all in a more conventional venue, these Beckett shorts certainly wouldn’t have been as effective if performed in any other building in Cambridge. 

All in all, then, it was clear throughout just how much work was put into this one-night only performance. The cast is exceptionally talented and I hope that we will see more from King’s College Drama Soc in the near future – and I also hope to see the King’s Chapel used as a theatrical venue again in the future, because it works fantastically!

4/5

Beckett Shorts was performed on Friday 12th November at 7.30pm and 9pm at the King’s College Chapel. The play’s Camdram page can be found here.