Not I, Footfalls, Rockaby at BAM Harvey Theater

In this staging of three one-woman plays by Samuel Beckett, directed by the playwright’s longtime friend Walter Asmus[1], the obsessive rhythms of abject existence—rambling, pacing, and rocking—are laid bare. Irish actor Lisa Dwan, who drew ecstatic reviews for her performances at the Royal Court Theatre and in the West End, masterfully triangulates the existential void. In Not I, a woman—reduced to a mere mouth, suspended in total darkness—seeks solace in a blisteringly paced[2] stream of her own broken speech. In Footfalls, a tattered soul, drained of life, paces relentlessly outside her dying mother’s bedroom. And in Rockaby, a woman slowly withdraws from the world, rocked to eternal sleep in her mother’s chair.