Ten minutes with EgoPo Classic Theater and its walk-up window production of Samuel Beckett’s Rockaby
Of all the virtual and-or uniquely staged projects of Philadelphia’s pandemic season, so far, a live, single audience member production of Rockaby from Dublin-born existentialist author Samuel Beckett just about takes the prize for most deliciously odd setting and signature. Then again, EgoPo has tackled the work of Beckett in the past. Weirdly and nobly, with a steampunk-inspired Waiting for Godot in 2009. And an Endgame set in a New Jersey basement in 2010. Who goes to Jersey to get stuck in a basement? Brave EgoPo Classic Theater is who.
Co-directed by EgoPo Classic Theater’s founding artistic director Lane Savadove and its Artist in Residence, Damien J. Wallace in bursts of intensive 10-minute runs several times a night, Rockaby is a Covid isolationist’s dream. Or nightmare. “Ten minutes isn’t much. But you do that several times a night, and it’s grueling,” said one of its actors, Cathy Simpson.
“At the end of my own mother’s life, she retreated inside her home, and my final months with her were through a window,” wrote Savadove in a note regarding co-director Wallace. “Beckett’s piece is not dramatic hyperbole. It is the desperate and intense reality for many. Perhaps for all, as we reach the end of our days. I’ve always seen this piece as ferocious and touching and vulnerable. And, in my mind, there is no better director or actor for grounding heightened text than Damien Wallace. He is a master with Beckett and I am so honored to direct with him. Having two directors will help make each of the women’s worlds completely distinct from each other, influenced by their unique personalities and unique neighborhoods.”
Wallace added, in person, that, “This is a thrill to be able to do something so unique,” he said. “That’s what EgoPo does best: unique.”
Along with renowned aforementioned Philadelphia actor Simpson, Melanie Julian and Karen Vicks will play to an audience of one single audience member at a time. “Peering through a house window in one of three different neighborhoods,” with locations in Point Breeze, Passyunk Crossing, and East Oak Lane. Each paying audience member will meet an emissary of EgoPo’s on a specific, given corner, before being walked to a surprise, previously undisclosed location. Once there, you get a woman in the window discussing the wonders of woe and universal separation. And the fun begins.
EgoPo Classic Theater’s production of Rockaby runs from March 10 until the 21st. $25 for one performance. Or $60 for a three-show passport with specific times and meet-up locations provided following purchase. Tickets at egopo.org.
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