NEVER KNEW SUCH SILENCE – Krapp‘s Last Tape (First attempt)

MIXED MEDIA INSTALLATION
(2 CHANNEL AUDIO, 24 MIN LOOP, VIDEO, MODIFIED TAPE RECORDER, COMPUTER, PROPS), 2008

Devised for: Former Porter’s Lodge at GENERAL PUBLIC Berlin during Copyright Projekt #8: Von Geistern, Hologrammen und anderen Abwesenheiten

Synopsis:

“Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn‘t want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn‘t want them back.”

This work is a re-staging of Beckett’s famous one person play “Krapp’s Last Tape” featuring an ageing man in conversation with his tape recorder and the recordings of his younger self. Whilst the voices of the actor are divided into the recorded and the performing parts, in fact both parts are a replay and the visitor by listening has access to the “space of Krapp” (or that of his actor?), sitting in his chair, following video prompts (stage directions) on the monitor, listening to Krapp’s past and to his current self, smelling the intense scent of rotting bananas and almost hearing him/herself say…

“Past midnight. Never knew such silence. The earth might be uninhabited.”