Synopsis

Footfalls was written in English between March and December 1975. May, wrapped in tatters, paces back and forth engaging in conversation with the disembodied voice of her mother. In the second scene, May's voice becomes subsumed into her mother's. She paces ever more slowly as the play progresses, and the light dims, so that by the fourth and final scene there is no trace of her.

'Will you never have done revolving it all'
– May, Footfalls

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Director

Walter Asmus is a distinguished German theatre director. He was a close friend of Beckett's and worked with him on many occasions, first directing Waiting For Godot for the Gate Theatre in 1988.

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Cast

Susan Fitzgerald (May) has performed extensively on stage at the Gate Theatre and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in productions including Arcadia, The Heiress, Lady Windermere's Fan, Six Characters in Search of an Author, and Great Expectations. She has worked in television in Ireland and abroad. Her film credits include Angela's Ashes, The Serpent's Kiss and A Portrait of the Artist.

Joan O'Hara ('Voice') has worked in theatre in Dublin, London and New York. Productions include Rockaby and Footfalls directed by Ben Barnes, the Abbey Theatre's productions of The Colleen Bawn and By the Bog of Cats; the Gate Theatre's productions of The Weeping Angels and Pride and Prejudice, among many others. Her film credits include Far and Away, Moondance, A Man of No Importance and The Fifth Province.

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