Norris's 'Not I': A Mouth Steals the Show — SkimNews
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- Rufus Norris directs a new production of Samuel Beckett's short play "Not I" at the Minghella Theatre in Reading, which the Guardian review calls "strange and deeply moving"
- Claire Booth stars as a soprano whose mouth is filmed or lit in isolation against a black background to convey the racing mind of a desperate woman
- The staging features a long, dark preamble performed by an animated mouth before Beckett's text begins, opening with a passage from Luciano Berio
- The reviewer credits the solo mouth performance with "stealing the show" and praises the added operatic dimension as a fresh take on Beckett's famously minimalist work
Why it matters: Norris's choice to cast an operatic soprano and frame the performance around a single isolated mouth is a bold formal reinterpretation of one of Beckett's most extreme dramatic pieces, signalling how a 50-year-old minimalist text can be reshaped for new audiences through unconventional casting and staging.
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