Homecoming for much-loved theatre director
Graeme Phillips on his return to The Unity with Krapp's Last Tape
It should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever encountered The Unity’s former artistic director Graeme Phillips that his return to the Liverpool theatre is proving popular.
He retired in 2015 after 33 years of working for a venue that had become much more than a location - it was a support network for actors, writers, directors and many more. Many of the people to whom Graeme gave a platform in their early, unsteady careers have gone on to great success. Among them, in fact, is The Unity’s new interim artistic director Elinor Randle - an appointment Graeme says he is thrilled about and is hoping she stays on for far longer than her initial contract.
With the Friday night performance of Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett already sold out, and seats to both of Saturday’s booking up nicely, there’s a happy atmosphere in the auditorium where the production team is admiring a box filled with dried banana skins and Graeme is looking at a pile of old sheet music.
But there is another reason for celebrating Graeme’s return to theatre. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2015, he was hospitalised for six months during the first year of the Covid Pandemic, before moving into a care home in March 2021. With tight regulations in the care and health sector and lockdowns continuing intermittently into 2022, he - and so many others - were isolated at a terrifying time.
With his medication not yet at the right level, he lived in a fantasy world, hallucinating about plays he was working on and a show about mud people that he believed was being performed in the car park. Throughout this time his long-term partner and creative collaborator Peter Ward, formerly director of performing arts organisation Hope Street Ltd, kept in touch - visiting daily when restrictions were lifted. And eventually, when Graeme’s medication had settled down, they started to plan a real theatre production together.
It’s a play that Graeme has revisited several times in his career. He played the role at Ipswich Arts Centre and later directed a version of it in-the-round. This time the one-hander is being performed by Nick Birkinshaw, whose take on Krapp - along with Graeme’s direction - won plaudits back in 2015. So does returning to The Unity - and to this play in particular - feel like coming home?
“I’ll answer that after Friday,” he jokes, adding that he’s “very content” about the play so far in rehearsals.
In it, Krapp is spending his 69th birthday listening to a recording he made on the day he turned 39, marking the occasion alone at a wine house. Then he continues his annual tradition of recounting the past year on to tape, still alone, still unfulfilled.
“It’s quite a simple play, it only lasts 50 minutes but it shouldn’t be underestimated. There’s a universality to it and it’s very poetic,” says Graeme.
“I’m glad to have dusted it down for another outing. It’s been interesting. This time I’m a lot more mature in terms of understanding the play.”
As Krapp describes his memories, he adds, you are left wondering whether they are real.
This is something Graeme has experienced personally, not being able to fully trust his own memory. Some of the hallucinations he experienced as a symptom of Parkinson’s remain in his mind as false memories.
At the end of each performance of Krapp’s Last Tape, Graeme, Nick and Peter will be taking part in a Q&A with a health sector specialist, talking about the play’s revival and advocating for what people living with a neurological disease can do, rather than what they can’t.
After witnessing people’s experience of living in care homes during the pandemic, Peter drew on his community arts background to create two theatre shows which toured care homes in 2022 and 2023, using recordings of residents’ memories and conversations as their inspiration. He has since set up That Theatre Group, which uses the performing arts to generate meaningful therapeutic engagement and is currently planning a theatre company in residence project in a care home.
Graeme’s return to directing demonstrates not only how much is possible while living with a neurological disease, but that experiences of living with one can bring a valuable perspective to a well-known work.
Krapp’s Last Tape is at The Unity, Liverpool, on May 10 and 11.
Thank you for reading Stored Honey. I’ll be back on Tuesday with the weekly news edition. If you are an arts organisation or individual who would like to be featured in a future edition, get in touch on X/Twitter, in the comments or by dropping me a line at tostoredhoney@gmail.com.
Have a great week,
Laura