Gate Beckett Season - First Love
The adaptation by Gate Theatre Dublin's artistic director Michael Colgan of Samuel Beckett's early novella First Love was sold out within days of the announcement that Ralph Fiennes would be the actor performing it.
An interesting box office rush: one man monologue, the notoriously "difficult" playwright, 55 minutes running time and - for the majority of the audience - the star is the thing and the play comes a distant second.
Within the opening moments, however, it becomes apparent that both actor and text are inextricably linked in a rare display of acting talent and skill. Fiennes is alone on a stage with just a park bench for company. The setting is a simple scrim at the rear of the stage, lit to represent a foggy Dublin; the only extra adornment is the brief ghostly appearance in the fog of a white painted Georgian front door and, later, a white window frame. That's it - otherwise it Fiennes and Beckett.
In the ironically titled story a man, evicted by his father's death from the room in the family house which he considered his in perpetuity, finds some comfort on a park bench where he meets a woman. She takes him home from whence it pretty much goes to hell in a handcart of bleak humour and wicked observation.
Samuel Beckett wrote First Love in 1946 but it wasn't published in English until 1973. It's spare ramble through the character's discontent and almost innocent spouting of uncomfortable truths is a perfect vehicle for an actor to explore subtlety, vocal and physical nuance and the greatest skill of all: spontaneity.
In the 55 minutes of his performance Fiennes appears never to anticipate what he is about to say next. In a memorised text this is an extraordinary if imperceptible achievement. At no time does he signal that he knows what's coming next, instead it tumbles out in fits and starts, with pauses, momentary realisations and emphases only normally found in real life speech.
It's a performance of casual intensity, astonishingly skilled timing and it's a great pity that the vast majority of student actors won't be able to experience this once-in-a-lifetime master class from one of the finest actors ever to visit.
According to the Sydney Festival website: "This event is currently sold out. Close to the performance date, unused house seats may be released for sale. A limited amount of tickets are available on the day of each performance through Tix for Next to Nix." (Martin Place - the shocking pink booth.)
First Love, Parade Theatre to January 19; www.sydneyfestival.org.au
