Interview with Dave Wybrow

Ahead of this deeply personal new production of Krapp's Last Tape at The Cockpit, we spoke with director Dave Wybrow about memory, ageing, creativity, and the extraordinary experience of working alongside actor Peter Marinker. Incorporating recordings from Peter’s own earlier performances of the role and shaped in response to his recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis, this production promises to be both a powerful interpretation of Beckett’s text and a moving exploration of identity, memory, and performance itself.

What first led you to revisit Krapp’s Last Tape with Peter Marinker at this particular moment in time? You’ve said this production is happening “because of Peter’s Alzheimer’s, not in spite of it.” Can you expand on what that means?

The inspiration for the project really came from Peter’s Alzheimer's diagnosis. Suddenly there was an opening to focus intently on the theme of re-membering - by which I mean the activity of constructing oneself for the present through invoking particular moments from the past. It's what Krapp is trying to do: construct/edit a preferred version of himself through the device of a yearly diary - but with the complication that a past he never chose - that he denied - keeps drawing his attention: pulling him back emotionally. The play is about a man - not an idea - and our aim with the show will be to share the character with the audience, not to explain the character but to bring him to life. 

The fact that Peter is having to work with his own memory in order to do that is not only a very appropriate way of building the thematic resonance of the play - it's also an exploration of Peter’s condition; the extent to which he’s able to track shifts in his balance between mental acuity and instinctive emotional response. This itself is a process at the centre of the play, underlying the polarities Krapp moves between as he tries to ‘pull himself together’. Importantly for Peter, it's also part of a set of ideas that Peter has become involved with through the work of the contemporary Australian biologist Jeremy Griffeth. Peter is reading a lot of Griffeth - who was in turn very taken with the work of Beckett.

What makes Samuel Beckett’s writing uniquely suited to exploring memory and cognition?

 It's what he wrote about. A lot of Beckett’s writing is concerned with the relationship of selfhood to conscious thought (cognition) - and re-cognition (memory) and then the place of our humanity within that. His late work Company is a good example (which Peter and I did at The Cockpit) but it's a theme that runs through everything he wrote.

The production uses recordings from Peter’s previous performance of Krapp in 1983. How did that idea emerge?

It emerged on its own. It just walked into the room. If you have an actor remembering the last time he played a role, and the role he played was of a man remembering his past self and you have the actual recordings of the man playing the role playing the man remembering his past self it saves you an awful lot of work to use those recordings!

How emotionally charged was it hearing Peter’s younger self in rehearsal?

For me it was just kind of strange. Peter and I have worked together on Beckett for years but the recordings pre-date my time with him. The first time I heard the recordings with the young, sprightly, determinedly confident Peter, it was like “Oh - that’s who you were!” Peter just listens as an actor: “I should have gone slower….” he says. (He’s right about that; we are having to slow them down.)

Beckett’s work is often associated with precision and control. How do you balance that with the unpredictability that naturally comes with live performance and memory?

You just hope for magic to happen in the gap between them. Precision and control IS important in Beckett because of the almost musical timing he wrote into things that can really get the stuff to ring. But it's for live actors. Sometimes bits come extra alive with extemporisation. Sometimes they don't. It's like jazz.

The play already examines ageing and identity. Has this production changed your own relationship to those themes?

 Yes. My Mother had a memory deficit so I’m no stranger to it but working with Peter is normalising the idea that changes happen but life - and work - can go on. Alzheimer's has its own day to day landscape of ups and downs and its new dangers, insights, compensations and sadnesses. But the smoke goes up the chimney just the same. And working with Peter and the team is adding to the joy and lessening the dread for all of us. But that's why we do art anyway, right?

You mention accessibility for older artists. Do you think the industry still undervalues ageing performers and creatives?

It doesn't so much undervalue them as underemploy them. The mythology of arts and entertainment is full of images of ageing national treasures from Picasso to Bette Davis. Think of all the accolades for lifetime achievement etc. In a way the whole upper echelons of fame are clogged with people in their dotage! At the same time, people are TERRIFIED of employing actors with age related disabilities - especially Alzheimer’s. I really hope this show helps push back against that.

The presence of stage management and potential in-ear prompts becomes part of the theatrical language here. Why was it important not to hide that?

Because we want the audience to know and join in with the context of the show. That way the extra dimensions Peter’s performance brings with it gets shared with them.

This production feels as though it blurs the line between performance and lived experience. Was that intentional from the outset?

Oh yes. We want a nerve-wracking time every night!

What do you think audiences unfamiliar with Beckett might find surprising about the play?

How short it is. It is only about 50 minutes long. And I think for some, Beckett always just seems weird. Which it is, when compared with most conventional storytelling. But what happens is, the stuff follows you around afterwards….

Duncan Henderson’s design is said to come from a performer’s perspective. How has that shaped the visual world of the production?

Duncan is a highly skilled actor as well as a highly skilled designer. The basic set is prescriptive. Things have to be where they are. But within that Duncan has built things that are not only actor-friendly but also Peter-friendly, for example things arranged off stage that he picks up at exactly the right height and relationship to each other, and then emerges with, so that Peter can move things without coming out of role at any point.

Why do you think Krapp’s Last Tape continues to resonate so strongly nearly seventy years after it was written?

Because times have changed but getting old hasn't, much.

If audiences leave carrying one thought or feeling with them, what would you most want it to be?

Live now.  Love now.

 (If there was another thought it should be for United Colleges Group who own The Cockpit. Without whom this simply would not be happening…)

A huge thank you to Dave Wybrow for taking the time to speak with me about this remarkable production of Krapp’s Last Tape. Combining Beckett’s timeless meditation on memory and identity with Peter Marinker’s own lived experience, this promises to be an extraordinarily intimate and thought-provoking theatrical event. Krapp’s Last Tape, performed by Peter Marinker will be at the Cockpit Theatre from 2nd – 5th September 2026, with all proceeds donated to Alzheimer's Society. For tickets and more information, visit: https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/KrappsLastTape