Rough Theatre @ Paradise In The Vault

If ever there was a venue that was made to house a Samuel Beckett production, it's Paradise At The Vault. Dark, bleak and basically underground it is the perfect location to house Rough Theatre.

The play is split into two parts: Beckett's Rough For Theatre 1 and 2 and each part is perfectly suited to the dark emptiness in the room. As with all Beckett, the dialogue is fast paced, sometimes contradictory and sometimes confusing. In the first piece, the characters aren't necessarily having a conversation with each other as much as just having the conversation – any conversation – that they want to have for themselves. The second is a morbidly detached office scene where human contact is both desired and run from.

The actors' portrayal of these characters is very adept and perfectly suited to the material. They find the humour and the pathos and use their physicality as well as their words to really get into it. The moments of absurdity allow them to brush over the seriousness of the situation that lies beneath, or hides in the background of what initially appears to be happening. For an adaptation of Beckett it stands up to the text and is only helped by its perfect location in the vault.