Rockaby

Synopsis

A darkened stage. A single spotlight illuminates an elderly woman in a rocking chair.

W, a prematurely aged woman with unkempt grey hair and huge eyes in a white expressionless face, sits motionless in a gleaming wooden rocking chair. Her recorded voice, V, speaks as the chair begins to rock mechanically. Through four cycles of rocking and recorded speech, we witness W’s gradual retreat from the world and into herself.

Samuel Beckett’s Rockaby is a haunting meditation on loneliness, aging, and the human need for connection. Through a mesmerising blend of minimalist staging, rhythmic language, and precise physical choreography, the play creates a dreamlike atmosphere that blurs the line between memory and present reality. The repetitive nature of the text, with its subtle variations and echoes, mirrors the rocking of the chair and the cyclical nature of life itself. As W’s recorded voice narrates her increasing isolation and eventual retreat from the world, the play explores themes of mortality, the search for meaning, and the comfort found in ritual and repetition.