Krapp’s Last Tape – Review – York Theatre Royal

By Roger Crow, May 2025

Gary Oldman takes to the stage in silence. As he requested. But is it him? One of the greatest actors of my lifetime, and possibly yours. In York. He’s the sort of A-list name I spend hours on a train, then Tube for. In the same ranks as Sigourney Weaver, who dragged me like a tractor beam to London at Christmas. I’d have done the same for Gary, as I like to call him, because we’ve had a one-sided relationship since the early 1990s. The era when the likes of JFK and Bram Stoker’s Dracula cemented his status as chameleonic acting superstar. Then there were all those other films, inevitably as a villain-for-hire in the likes of Air Force One and Lost in Space.

I had no idea he started his acting career at the Theatre Royal in York, but it took nanoseconds for me to NEED tickets the second I knew the real Gary Oldman would be taking to the stage.

Samuel Beckett is enjoying a major renaissance at the moment thanks to Gary’s one-man show, which he also brilliantly directed. Bill and Ted (Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter) will also be starring in Waiting For Godot in New York thanks to genius theatre superstar producer Jamie Lloyd, the man who keeps dragging me to London to see the likes of Sunset Boulevard, The Tempest and most recently the phenomenal Much Ado About Nothing.

“An exercise in minimalism”

But back to now. There’s Gary on stage, in the chaotic set of desk, lights, and a chair. Seasoned protagonist Krapp shambles to said chair and regards the audience. In silence. It’s a silence that’s occasionally punctuated by the odd cough from the audience.

Weeks earlier on press night, I’d have been THAT guy, coughing through the performance had I not cancelled. A decision which broke my heart. Thankfully I finally get to see one of the most extraordinary dramas of the year. At a little under an hour with no interval, it’s obviously brief. And the fact Gary spends the first 10 minutes or so eating a banana, and then another, is an exercise in minimalism. When he eventually does speak, it’s mesmerising. It isn’t one of those hologram avatars that populates the ABBA Voyage show in London, but the real deal.

Beckett’s seasoned character is reflecting on his youth, a romantic encounter, and his thoughts of the time via said tape. Just the word “Spool” generates a much-needed laugh, as it should. This is such a beautifully melancholy tale, it needs levity in its gloomy darkness, and quite rightly for the duration, you can’t take your eyes off the only thesp on stage.

It’s a very canny move for an actor to have narrated a chunk of the dialogue, as the play demands. So Oldman spends most of the time reacting to his younger self, no doubt reflecting on his time in the same theatre decades earlier.

“Achingly poignant”

What seems like a play that could last hours eventually fades to black with one of the most memorable closing lines of dialogue. Had I seen the show in my twenties it wouldn’t have had the same resonant punch. Now in my mid to late-fifties, it packs a wallop, as it should. This is a drama for anyone and everyone, but it will resonate more with those who have lived a life.

So the show felt like it would last for hours, and suddenly there’s a craving for more. Krapp is such a well-rounded character, an exercise in minimalism, that he gets under your skin. And when the light dims at the finale, it’s an achingly poignant spot of stage direction. The darkness and a red light on the tape player which eventually turns off.

Gary Oldman. Live on stage. In York. Again. I’m slightly gobsmacked. I’d been fizzing with excitement for months, and now it’s all over. Mrs C and I file out and walk past the crowd of autograph-seekers outside. We’re half way back to the car before I do a 180, and wait for an hour would be emerge to greet the fans like Tom Cruise who spends hours doing this sort of thing. It’s Gary Oldman? He doesn’t need to do this sort of thing. Or does he?

Roger outside York Theatre Royal, with Gary Oldman
image: Rachel Crow

“Thrilled”

Eventually we shake hands; there are photos, a signed programme and I thank him for making Leon, let alone Krapp’s Last Tape. He seems genuinely thrilled, and delighted to get a shot with Mrs Crow.

The play stays with me for the rest of the night, and will no doubt linger for years to come. It’s a terrific piece of work from a man who always delivers. His phenomenal turn as shambling Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses recently landed a well-deserved BAFTA nomination, and if there had been any justice he’d have landed plaudits for all those other projects, including under-rated turns in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

I have no doubt he’ll land an Oliver nomination for KLT. But for now, I’m in awe.

What a night that was, dark or otherwise.