I dutifully read the Complete Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett over a year ago, as my reading list instructed me to. I remember thinking that I had to see these performed; I wanted to know how you possibly could stage a play which requires the actors to sit in urns, and I was convinced that Beckett’s language, incredible and bizarre and not entirely likeable as it is, would gain a lot in performance. This was not the case with the Pembroke Players Freshers’ Show.

The challenge of staging these plays was met admirably. The three characters in Play are supposed to sit in neck-high urns; white duvets wrapped tightly around the actors were a fine substitute, giving the necessary physical restriction and a similar sense of isolation. James Flesher is a hero for almost perfectly executing the lighting here, which requires a spotlight to shine on each actor as they talk and shut off as soon as they stop. The disembodied mouth in Not I also worked surprisingly well, as the actor (Amritha John), blindfolded and dressed in black, was lit only by a torch strapped to her chest. But on the whole, the production was a disappointment.

There was nothing much wrong with the acting; no one was noticeably bad, and in fact there were some very good performances. I particularly liked how Emma Fairhurst managed to be tired and bitter without just seeming dreary in Play, and Amritha John took on what has apparently been called “the most difficult part an actor can ever be called on to play” with a frenetic desperation which was unnerving at times. The main problem was pace. Beckett’s language is incredible; I could not hear a lot of it. In Play and Not I everything was delivered at breakneck speed, and the subtlety of the phrasing was lost. I can understand the temptation to say everything so quickly – these plays are strings of phrases that are often barely coherent – but some variation would have provided clarity and interest. Beckett plays with language – Rough for Theatre II contains the best (only?) joke I’ve heard about searching for the main verb of a sentence – but that didn’t come across in this production, only a barrage of words.

Rough for Theatre II was again not bad, but it was also not that memorable, and I found myself wishing it would end. The others gained some energy from their unusual staging; this slightly more conventional offering fell flat.  In the break between the second and third plays, I turned to my friend and said “I think this is proving that I don’t like Beckett.” I decided I had to look at the plays again to see what was down to Beckett and what was down to this production. In doing so, I found that I do like Beckett: he is utterly extraordinary. As such, his plays require extraordinary actors and extraordinary directors – and these were sadly not to be found at Pembroke.