'Not I' at Waterside Theatre

'NOT I' written in 1972, is probably Samuel Beckett's most stunning stage image, the minimalist stage directions create a delicate visual and aural composition of voice and fragmented bodies.

By The Newsroom

Published 30th Apr 2010, 13:12 BST

Updated 4th May 2010, 13:15 BST

It is staged in a pitch-black space lit only by a single ray of light. This light is fixed on an actress’ mouth about eight feet in height, everything else being blacked.

The mouth utters at a ferocious pace of an excessive flow of words, jumbled and fragmented sentences through a torrential stream of monologue which tells the story of a woman roughly seventy years old who has been abandoned by her biological parents after a premature birth. Her quick use of language is a manifestation of the ‘buzzing’ in her head, an almost involuntary act that spews out of a sad autobiographical rant.

NOT I will be visiting The Waterside Theatre on Thursday 6th & Friday 7th May. Ticket price is set at 7 and 5 concessionary are available online www.watersidetheatre.com or from the Theatre Box Office on (028) 7131 4000