Denis Conway: Christian Brothers, contact tracing,  and Krapp’s Last Tape

The Cork actor used his chemistry degree to good effect during the pandemic, but is now back on the stage where he belongs

Denis Conway in Krapp’s Last Tape, at the Everyman, Cork. Picture: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision

 Denis Conway looks like many of us still feel on emerging from a pandemic. He peers out from the screen, bearded, bewildered and bedraggled as he slowly peels and then eats a banana. Not to worry though, it’s not a Zoom call with the Cork actor but rather a YouTube clip teasing his upcoming performance in Krapp’s Last Tape at the Everyman.

Like most of Samuel Beckett’s plays, the themes of Krapp’s Last Tape are timeless — ruminating as it does on existence, selfhood and the passing of time — but the writer’s work certainly hits harder right now.