LAST year, the multi-award-winning film actor Gary Oldman returned to the stage, to the York theatre where he made his acting debut  to perform Samuel Beckett’s solo masterpiece Krapp’s Last Tape. This year he is back reprising the role in London. More locally, another veteran actor, David Westhead, takes on the challenge in a new production coming to Dorchester Corn Exchange on Thursday 16th April at 7.30pm.

Krapp’s Last Tape is a journey through an old man’s life, filled with hilarious memories and hopes for the future, coupled with the mourning of lost love and unfulfilled ambition.

Haunting, darkly funny, rambling, sometimes perplexing, the play is an exploration of memory, regret and lost ambition. In some ways, nothing happens. (You can, of course, say the same of Beckett’s other great masterpiece, Waiting For Godot). But if you simply sit back and let Krapp’s words and the old tapes draw you in, it becomes oddly celebratory as well as deeply sad.

David Westhead is a familiar face from countless television dramas and series, and a regular member of both the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre. The play is directed by Academy Award nominee Stockard Channing.

Krapp’s Last Tape is also at Tobacco Factory Theatres in Bedminster, Bristol, on 27th and 28th April.