New Adaptation of Samuel Beckett's ALL THAT FALL Set for Bristol Old Vic

"It is a text written to come out of the dark" said Samuel Beckett of his mysterious, tragicomic first radio play 'All That Fall'. In this production, by internationally acclaimed director Max Stafford-Clark, audiences will be blindfolded as the cast move about them in the auditorium, their voices joined by a surround-sound design by Dyfan Jones. It plays at Bristol Old Vic from 8 to 12 March and Wilton's Music Hall from 22 March to 9 April 2016.

Max said: "Ever since I first read All That Fall, I yearned to direct this hour long play which marries his darkly comic genius to a particularity of social observation and makes for a rich, hilarious and stunning evening."

All That Fall is one of Beckett's most accessible and naturalistic plays, and unmistakably Irish - it was inspired by his native Foxrock. A bawdy and unpredictable tale, it charts the faltering journey of elderly Maddy Rooney as she ventures along a country road to surprise her blind husband at the train station for his birthday treat. Along the way she is helped and hindered by a series of colourful characters; but when she is united with her husband, she is confronted with a strange and harrowing event that makes him seem a stranger.

First broadcast in 1957, 'All That Fall' was the first time Beckett centred his work on a female protagonist. Tony Award-winner Bríd Brennan (Dancing at Lughnasa) will play the unforgettably outspoken and funny Maddy Rooney, plagued with rheumatism and defiant in her small, strained act of love. This production was created for, and co-produced with, the Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival.

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