Irish playwright Samuel Beckett is often credited, along with Jean Genet and Eugene Ionesco, as being one of the founders of what is commonly known as Theater of the Absurd, combining surrealism, verbal and visual non sequiturs and conventions of slapstick comedy. Spooky Action Theater is presenting two Beckett one-acts, his 1958 classic “Krapp’s Last Tape” teamed with a 1981 vignette, “Ohio Impromptu,” as a curtain-raiser.
To say that “Ohio Impromptu” is the lesser of the two plays would be putting it mildly, coming off more like a parody of Beckett. Two identical white-haired old men, the Reader (Richard Henrich, who also directed both plays) and the Listener (Carter Jahncke), are sitting at a table. The Reader reads a tale of lost love and sorrow out loud from a book while the Listener listens, occasionally rapping on the table with his knuckles. That’s it. Thankfully, “Ohio Impromptu” is only 10 minutes long, although it feels much longer.
“Krapp’s Last Tape” is more substantive and entertaining, with Jahncke giving a tour de force in the title role. Krapp is a decrepit 69-year-old man who tape-records an oral commentary about his life on every birthday. After consulting a ledger listing each reel and consuming a banana (and almost taking a pratfall on the discarded peel), Krapp starts listening to the tape he recorded on his 39th birthday.
As we listen to his more vital and hopeful younger self talk about how glad he is to have shed the illusions of his youth and looks forward to better years in the future and hear the current observations Krapp records for this year, we realize that the pathetic, lonely old man we see before us has done nothing to achieve his ambitions. He has spent his entire life just commenting about it on tape rather than actually doing anything.
Jahncke plays Krapp with the absolute conviction necessary for absurd comedy, almost daring the audience to laugh at the funnier moments. (His elongated pronunciations of the word “spool” are almost worth the price of admission alone.)
If you go
Spooky Action Theater’s production of “Beckett Duo” runs through Nov. 23.
Venue: The Black Box Theatre at Montgomery College, Corner of Philadelphia (East-West Highway) and Chicago avenues, Takoma Park
Performances: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday`
Tickets: $5 to $15
More info: 800-494-7497; spookyaction.org
