Title: A treadmill to nothingness? Haunting Beckett ghost story
Product review: Despite its mathematically precise stage directions (there's even a diagram), pinning down the dramatic events, 'Footfalls' is ultimately as elusive as its heroine, pacing endlessly up and down a strip of light, tending to her sick mother. The pacing is interrupted by two monologues which may, or may not, tell the story of May's life - it is typical in a play with a literally self-effacing heroine that her story should haunt others' stories, that others should speak for her, that the imagery should be ghost-like, inchoate, tantalising; one voice doubled, splintered. Her mother is a mere voice; by the end of the play, May is on her way - is this the natural fate of women for Beckett?It goes without saying that such a visually precise play doesn't read very well, although there is an accumulation of words and feelings that is tremendously powerful.
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