Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby, the trilogy of short plays written by Samuel Beckett that Lisa Dwan will perform at the Royal Court in January, will transfer to the West End’s Duchess theatre in February.
Dwan’s 10-day run at the Royal Court, from 9 to 18 January, has already sold out, so the Duchess theatre transfer, from 3 to 15 February, gives drama fans another chance to watch these unique pieces.
In further good news for theatregoers the West End run will stick to the Royal Court’s pricing structure, making tickets available from £12 to £25.
Speaking about the transfer, Nica Burns, Chief Executive of Nimax Theatres, which owns the Duchess, said: “I’m delighted to enable all the audiences who could not get tickets at the Royal Court to experience Lisa Dwan’s outstanding performance of these wonderful Beckett short plays. The delightfully intimate and atmospheric Duchess theatre could not be a more perfect space to see the plays in the West End.”
The Royal Court’s Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone added: “In a visionary move and one which reminds us there is passion and integrity in our West End, Nica Burns and Nimax are opening up this extraordinary piece of theatre to a wider audience. That they are doing this and keeping tickets at Royal Court prices for a limited residency makes me deeply proud and inspired to be in partnership with them.”
Not I, which Dwan first performed at the Royal Court in May, is a stream of consciousness monologue delivered by a disembodied female mouth, suspended eight feet above the stage, at the speed of thought. Rockaby, Beckett’s exploration of loneliness, features a prematurely aged woman sitting on a rocking chair that moves by itself, and Footfalls features May, who paces back and forth like a metronome.
Dwan’s Beckett dramas follows the Duchess theatre’s seasonal show, The Wind In The Willows, which finds Kenneth Grahame’s tale of Toad, Ratty, Mole and Badger transformed into dance by choreographer Will Tuckett and the Royal Ballet.