Showing @ The Hub, Edinburgh until Mon 26 Aug @ times vary

Written in 1957 and set an Irish village called Boghill, this is Samuel Beckett’s first radio play. The tone of the story is cold and despondently grey, though more naturalistic than much of his other work. It follows the elderly and overweight Mrs Rooney (Áine Ni Mhuírí) as she makes the journey to the local train station to meet her blind husband.

With no need for a stage, the floor is strewn with wooden rocking chairs clad only with a cushion crested with a skull – an omen for the narrative’s desolate nature. Above the swaying seats, the air teems with naked, gently glowing bulbs suspended at varying heights, mimicking a dusky night sky. At one end, a grid of powerful stage lights line a wall. Off for the majority of the show, they sporadically come alight in sweeps of pattern that parallel the story, like the mentions of wind.

Allusions to death are frequent, and when they’re thin on the ground they’re replaced by a swathe of derogatory comments. Coupled with the drawn-out delivery and unanimated intonation of the lines, this is frequently a depressing and sobering production. The sound of Mrs Rooney’s dragging feet (and later her husband’s tapping cane), which is heard throughout, emphasises the laboured and lingering journey of life we all take.

The simple but powerful set also enhances this feeling. When in darkness (which is often) it not only suits the bleak subject, but is scarily effective in giving the perception of isolation; a theme repeated in the script. As soon as the array of floating luminescence become aglow however, the space takes on an ethereal, magical and slightly purgatorial air. The faintly lit blubs mirroring the aged Mrs Rooney whose own light is about to go out. On their own, Beckett’s words are haunting and disturbing, but with Pan Pan Theatre Company’s technical effects, the tale takes on a distinctly transcendent atmosphere, as if comforting us all through our own fall.

Showing as part of the Edinburgh International Festival 2013