All That Fall - What’s All The Fuss About?  

It is interesting that two different productions should take the format of a “staged” radio play within the period of about a month. The first, the  “It’s A Wonderful Life Radio Show”, I wrote about on December 13.  The second, Samuel Beckett's “All That Fall”, is currently playing at the Cultch Historic – a production of Blackbird Theatre.

I have never seen a Beckett play that I truly enjoyed and All That Fall proved to be no exception.  Apparently, the only way that performing rights to the work could be obtained from the Beckett estate was by undertaking that it be staged in this format since it was originally written as a radio play.  This means that it had little to offer the eye and to succeed it had to have something exceptional to offer the ear.  It did not.  Closing ones eyes to get closer to the radio play experience carried the very real risk of falling asleep.  At fault was the material itself and not the very talented performers who struggled mightily to make something of it.

It strikes me that this reflects mistakes by both the Beckett estate and by Blackbird.  It is possible that All That Fall could be successfully adapted for the stage and, by insisting that performances adhere to the radio format, the estate is short-changing both the audiences and Beckett himself.  Blackbird’s mistake is agreeing to this restriction in the first place.

What surprises me the most is the positive critical reception this production has received.  I simply cannot see what all the fuss is about.