All that Fall, Unreal City Theatre Company, Toxteth Reservoir, Liverpool 

Posted on: 27 August 2024 by Nadia Chetouh in Posts

Review by Nadia Chetouh

Directed by Adrian Dunbar 

Actors: Orla Charlton, Anna Nygh, Vincent Higgins, Stanley Townsend, Frankie McCafferty, Oscar Stansfield 

Musicians: Darragh Morgan (violin), Cora Venus Lunny (violin), Fiona Winning (Viola), Tim Gill (Cello) 

Saturday 1 June 2024 

After the previous success of Beckett: Confined 2022, Unreal Cities have once again collaborated with The University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies and The Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at The University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs to showcase Beckett: Unbound 2024. Contrary to the previous Beckett festival, Beckett: Unbound 2024 explores themes of communication and the movement of technology over time, something Beckett was extremely fascinated by.  

I attended the festival on June 1st. Out of the three theatre productions running this year (consisting of Not I, All That Fall and Krapp’s Last Tape), I decided to attend day two of All That Fall, which took place in Liverpool’s Toxteth reservoir on High Park Street. As a Liverpool native, I was unsure what to expect from this large expanse of brick which I had only ever walked by in passing before. However, the inside of the reservoir took me aback – high walls filled with looming archways and sturdy columns, lit by a warm light which showed a few rows of seats, and a quartet sat at the back of the area. I was impressed at such a display from a building which I believed to be abandoned; a hidden gem in the heart of Toxteth. However, despite the friendly lights and the chatter of the audience as I sat down, I could not help but feel a little unnerved by the building. Perhaps the faint dripping in the distance (a reflection of the reservoir’s previous use) or the eerily empty space outside of the small area where the play took place, something felt slightly unusual – a theme similar to the production itself.  

I decided to see All That Fall because, out of all the productions available this year, I knew the least about this one. I wanted to go into the play with an open mind, knowing only the basic plot of the play. So, you can imagine my shock when the reservoir was plunged into darkness, and remained so until the very end of the play (which, as I have now learned, is a radio play). Out of the pitch black, music began to emerge from the quartet, Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 (D.810), as per the director’s instruction (Adrian Dunbar). My eyes adjusted gradually as the music reached its crescendo, but still I could only see the faint outlines of the arches and pillars of the reservoir, and the heads of the rest of the audience. In the corner of my eye, I could see the row of actors just in front of the string quartet, ready to read their lines with small head torches. It is an unusual experience to be so immersed with merely the sound of a play, but the darkness certainly enabled the audience to focus on the messages embedded within the dialogue.  

The dialogue begins with the squealing of a pig, the first of multiple rural animal sounds which are heard throughout the play. The slightly unnerving sound echoed off the high reservoir walls, something which proved effective for the more ominous parts of the play, but perhaps a slight hindrance when it came to actually hearing the dialogue. The story follows the journey of Mrs Rooney, an elderly woman on her way through the countryside to meet her husband at the train station for his birthday. A lonely, dramatic woman prone to hysterics, she meets multiple acquaintances  in various forms of transport on her journey. A delay at the train station adds even more stress to a day where nothing seems to be going right, and the walk home with Mrs Rooney and her husband Dan exposes the reason for her loneliness (through his constant exasperation and annoyance towards her). The rather comical play (up until this point) ends on a suggestively dark note, with the notion of Dan throwing a child under the tracks looming in the air as Schubert’s String Quartet ends the audio play. 

Mrs Rooney’s interactions at the beginning of the play are fundamental in establishing her loneliness, as well as her emotional instability. Every person she meets has a new mode of transport, but despite the development of transport throughout these interactions (from walking, to cart, to bicycle and to automobile), something goes wrong every time, including a flat tyre and a dead engine. It could suggest a certain aura of bad luck around Mrs Rooney, especially as she complains about how she dislikes leaving the house at all. These three interactions consist of many old age complaints, as well as multiple instances of manic laughing to inconsolable crying. Mrs Rooney is characterised by a definitive unstableness in her behaviour and her emotions, which are either very high or terribly low. A testament to her loneliness in her marriage could be seen in her interaction with Mr Slocum, who, after offering her a lift to the station, has to help the rather large Mrs Rooney into the car, during which we hear a very peculiar array of sounds from both characters, heavily filled with sexual innuendoes and resulting in a tear in Mrs Rooney’s dress. The comedic value of the play is certainly reflected in this scene, and this humorous overtone is predominant until the darker implications later on in the play.  

Once at the train station, she is helped out of the car by Tommy. She believes herself to be ignored by him during this interaction, which prompts a fit of passive aggressiveness that ends in more complaints of loneliness. Her being ignored amidst the conversation between the men reinforces the idea that she, perhaps being deemed as a “hysterical woman” is ignored frequently, and thus why she feels so lonely. Even her interaction with fellow female Miss Fitt (who, as the name suggests, is a bit of a wildcard character) shows Mrs Rooney being ignored again, as Miss Fitt does not even notice her until she is right in front of her. All of Mrs Rooney’s interactions seem to show her craving the attention of people, perhaps attention that she is lacking from her husband Dan.  

After a stressful wait for Dan’s delayed train, she begins her walk home with Dan. They walk in silence for a while, perhaps a reflection of the taut relationship between them. His sour, harsh demeanour contrasts the erratic and emotional state of Mrs Rooney, and this is only emphasised more when he complains of the steps at the train station, and how he wishes to retire. Their strained relationship is clear during their walk home, during which he asks why she even came out at all. The chaos that Mrs Rooney displays is almost justified once the audience hears the dynamic between her and Dan, and we’re finally exposed to the cause of her loneliness.  

Throughout their walk home, Dan refuses to tell Mrs Rooney why the train was delayed. He jumps from excuses to denial, both of which is mainly met with silence from Mrs Rooney. Towards the end of the play, Schubert’s music begins again softly as they walk through the rain, and through the fit of tears that have begun Dan asks Mrs Rooney what text they read at Sunday’s service. "The Lord upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up all those that be bowed down", is what Mrs Rooney tells him, and after which begins a fit of hysterical laughter from the both of them. Perhaps at the irony of them both being bowed over with age, they continue laughing until Jerry (a young boy) runs up to them with an object that Dan appears to have dropped. Dan angrily refuses to tell Mrs Rooney what it is, and becomes even more angry when she asks Jerry what happened on the train. Jerry goes on to tell her how a child fell out of the carriage, and under the the wheels of the train. There is only silence in the weight of what has been suggested, and the play ends with the sound of rain, thunder and the string quartet in the background.  

Many juxtapositions are seen in All That Fall, whether that be how women are ignored by men, the closeness of life and death or the difference between the young and the old (as, evidently, the characters in the play are only young or old, and yet ironically it is the young characters who die). Despite the comedic beginning of the play, the sharp contrast of the way Mrs Rooney is treated as a woman, as well as the murderous implications behind her husband Dan, twist the story into a much darker plot, set on a beautiful rural backdrop that can only be heard, and not seen (as opposed to the idea of children being “seen” and not “heard”). The movement of technology, which is the theme of this year’s Beckett Festival, is evident in the modes of transport that Mrs Rooney progresses through throughout the play. Yet, despite this, something is wrong with every mode of transport, and ultimately she ends the play walking with her husband again. Perhaps this is a reflection that nothing can be perfect, and the elderly often stick with old ways. Overall, the cast portrayed a vivid and turbulent story, one that I was impressed had such detail and emotion despite being an audio play only. The slightly eerie location of Toxteth reservoir completes the theme of the play, with its echoing walls emphasising the highs and lows of the production. Simon Roth’s sound design ensures that the play is framed by Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14, and in combination with the concluding sounds of rain and thunder, the soundtrack works well to reflects the ominous suggestion at the end of the play.  

Nadia Chetouh is a final year undergraduate at the University of Liverpool, studying English with Communications and Media. She is currently awaiting confirmation to continue her studies at a postgraduate level, an MA course on Renaissance and 18th Century Literature at the University of Liverpool.