It’s official: we’re obsessed with and afraid of ageing. Gone are the days when grey hair meant maturity and a lined face was a sign of experience. Now being older means your past it, over, pretty much in the grave, and we’ll nip, tuck, lift, dye and botox ourselves until we look like we belong in Madame Tussauds. But vanity aside, ageing has always been one of life’s great fears, especially when the end begins to draw in, and it is these twilight days of life that this Samuel Beckett double-bill explores.

Rockaby is a ten minute performance of a woman’s (Kay Gallie) last days in her rocking chair as she fears letting go of the routine of life for the unknown. Krapp’s Last Tape shows Krapp (Andrew Dallmeyer), who has obsessively recorded his thoughts and actions throughout life, listening back to one of these tapes with remorse for the man he once was and that all he has left are his tapes for memories.

As a performance of Beckett, this production will as always divide an audience with the old love Beckett/loathe Beckett opinions. Like his other plays, it concerns the mundanities of existence and the repetitiveness present in life. More specifically these two lesser-performed pieces are thematically linked in their exploration of mortality. Both actors perform their roles well, dragging their heels at their end of days with a tainted sadness, but do not evoke much feeling either way from the audience. It is well portrayed that this is the routine for both, and as with much Beckett this can ebb into the boring, causing the audience to feel as the characters feel. If you appreciate Beckett and his subtleties then you will enjoy this double-bill, but if you’re looking for something with pace and change then this won’t be for you.

Smirnoff Baby Belly, The Caves, Niddry St South (0870 745 3038)
Preview Aug 3-4: 15:25 (55mins) £5
Aug 5-6, 11-13, 18-20, 25-27: 15:25 (55mins) £9 (£8)
Aug 7, 9-10, 14, 16-17, 21, 23-24: 15.25 (55mins) £8 (£7)