All That Fall
by Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett - All That Fall
BBC Radio 3
Broadcast: Sunday 4th June 1972
This production, like the original 1957 one, is produced by Donald McWhinnie and has two members of the original 1957 production in it: J. G. Devlin returns as Mr. Dan Rooney, Maddy's husband while Allan McClelland, who played Christy, a carter, in the 1957 production, returns as Mr. Slocum, the Racecourse Clerk.
Samuel Beckett's first radio play, "All That Fall", was originally commissioned in 1956 by the BBC. Ostensibly an anecdote set in a rural community in Ireland, the play is a careful synthesis of speech, sound and silence, constructed with Beckett's unique blend of desperate humour and despairing tragedy.
In "All That Fall", Maddy Rooney, seventy years old, "two hundred pounds of unhealty fat", makes her laborious way to the Boghill railroad station to meet her blind husband, Dan, as a surprise for him on his birthday. Along the way she meets a comic array of Irish characters. On the retum home, deluged by neighourhood children and by rain, they keep their spirits up with a lively banter, sometimes savage, sometimes heart-rending.
"All That Fall" was first broadcast on BBC Third Programme on January 13, 1957. The production by Donald McWhinnie, considered a classic, featured Jack MacGowran, Patrick Magee, Mary Farell, James Gerard Devlin, Allan McClelland, Harry Hutchinson.
This new production, also by Donald McWhinnie, has been specially prepared for stereo.
Cast: Marie Kean [Mrs. Maddy Rooney, a Lady in her 70s], J. G. Devlin [Mr. Dan Rooney, Maddy's Husband], James Greene [Christy, a Carter], Kevin Flood [Mr. Tyler, a Retired Bill Broker], Allan McClelland [Mr. Slocum, the Racecourse Clerk], Derry Power [Mr. Barrell, the Station Master], Ron Flanagan [Tommy, a Porter], Kate Binchy [Miss Fitt, a Lady in her 30s], Brenda Gogan [A Female Voice], and Judy Bennett [Jerry, a Small Boy].
The programme was realised at B.B.C. Radiophonic Workshop by Desmond Briscoe.
Produced by Donald McWhinnie.
Jim
