Theatre review: Not I

Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

There are two kinds of theatre groups, those that hold Samuel Beckett’s texts to be sacred scripture, and those that see them as suitable for experimentation. Gaitkrash belong more in the second category than the first: in their new production of Not I, directed by Ger FitzGibbon, they remain true to Beckett’s text, but build a whole new theatrical experience around it.

Not I is one of Beckett’s shorter works. Its sole character is an elderly woman, in this case played by Regina Crowley, whose presence is entirely obscured but for her mouth. Its brevity is one reason why it is so seldom performed: it often runs at less than 10 minutes, more typically the length of a theatre interval than an actual performance.