GARY OLDMAN will return to the stage after 40 years in a revival of Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape.
The English actor, who was born in London in 1958, made his stage debut at the York Theatre Royal in 1979, and he will return there next spring when the production opens in April.
Written in 1958, Dublin-born Beckett’s one-act play tells the story of Krapp, who records a message each year on his birthday reflecting on the year gone by.
When the audience meets him, Krapp is 69 and lonely, but ready with a bottle of wine, a banana and his tape recorder, he listens back to a recording he made as a young man.
The play is a seminal piece of work by Beckett, who also wrote Waiting for Godot and Endgame and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.
It’s revival in York will be “a brand new production,” York Theatre Royal CEO Paul Crewes confirmed this week.
He also shared his excitement to have Academy Award winner Oldman – who has starred in the likes of Darkest Hour, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and more recently the Apple TV series Slow Horses – involved in the production.
“When Gary visited us at the beginning of the year, it was fascinating hearing him recount stories of his time as a young man, in his first professional role on the York Theatre Royal stage,” Crewes said.
“In that context when we started to explore ideas, we realised Krapp’s Last Tape was the perfect project.”
He added: “I am very happy that audiences will have this unique opportunity to see Gary Oldman return to our stage in this brand new production.”
Krapp’s Last Tape will open for previews at York Theatre Royal on April 14, 2025, and run until May 17, 2025.
Tickets will go on sale next month.