Coverage: All That Fall – Mabou Mines

All that Fall is a Beckett radio play from 1956.  I am going to focus on themes of death/mortality and indeterminacy for this post.  Death/mortality is referred to constantly; Maddy speaks a dead language, and there are continual references to aches and pains associated with aging.

Indeterminacy is textually weaved in with death throughout the script:  in Mr. Tyler’s comment, “Well half alive shall we say?”, Mrs. Rooney’s statement: “Don’t mind me, I do not exist.”, and Miss Fitt’s musing: “I suppose the truth is, Mrs. Rooney, I am not there, just not really there at all.”  The plot itself is indeterminate—we cannot be sure that Mr. Rooney did or did not throw the child under the train.  

In keeping with the idea of a radio play (and Beckett’s wishes), this production has no actors on stage.  They are heard, not seen, requiring the viewer to do the work of imagining, and again contributing to indeterminacy.  The body, as an element of drama, situates, and without this element we are left wondering if we are in a real world.  

This Mabou Mines production seems to waver back and forth between indeterminacy and certainty.  Thomas Dunn’s set displays maps that line the walls showing real places in Nova Scotia.  In addition, the painstakingly recreated village--a bucolic village with its houses, hills, train tracks etc. is a realistic backdrop to the events of Maddy’s journey.  However, the contrasting scales of the set pieces (full-sized bike, car door) and doll-sized houses again lead one to a place of uncertainty. 

Jennifer Tipton’s lighting also guides us toward a sense of realism.  We can see the path that Maddy takes through the various portions of the set that are lit during her various stops along her journey.  In this respect, I felt the production elements were at odds with one another.

I found the production interesting; my engagement with this production was predominantly intellectual rather than somatic. #allThatFall #MabouMines

Mabou Mines

RT: 75 minutes

01/08/26 – 01/24/26

(Off-Broadway review)