8/10/2019 The Grove Companion Entry All That Fall
1/2
orrow at first memory of lying side by side and fancy murmured
dead.
ll That Fall: SB wrote to Nancy Cunard(4 July 1956): Saw Barry
of BBC TV who isnterested in the mime(and why not?) and am told
Gielgud wants a play for 3rd Programme.
Never thought about radio play technique but in the dead of
tother night got a nice gruesomedea full of cartwheels and dragging
of feet and puffing and panting which may or may not leado
something. It didto a one-act play in English (UssySeptember 1956),
translated by
obert Pingetas Tous ceux qui tombent. The autograph copy is
titled Lovely Day for theaces, a flippant greeting in a town like
Foxrock, with the LeopardstownRacecourse nearby.BC 3 liked the
play, recorded it (dir. Donald McWhinnie, with Mary OFarrell and J.
G.evlin), and broadcast it (Sunday, 13 January 1957; repeated 19
January). It was favorably
eviewed, critics noting the affinity between SBs work and radio,
and comparing it with Dylanhomass Under Milk Wood. The BBC entered
it, unavailingly, for the 1957 Italia Prize (lateriven to
Embers).
The American production, part of a Beckett Festival of Radio
Plays, coproduced by
oundscape and RIAS, Berlin, dir. Everett Frost, was broadcast on
National Public Radio (13April 1986, SBs eightieth birthday), with
Billie Whitelawand David Warrilow. Despite qualms,
B authorized a FrenchTV version adapted by Robert Pinget, shown
by RTF (25 Janvier963). A German stage production was given at the
Schiller-Theater, Berlin (January 1966);B was not happy with
either. First published, Grove Press, 1957; Grove issued a
separatedition with a green cover and Christmas trees, With Best
Wishes for the Holiday Season from
Grove Press. Reprinted inKrapps Last Tapeand Other Pieces(1965),
2991. The first Faberdition, 1957, was subtitled A Play for Radio.
Small deletions were made after the firstecording. A German
translation (Alle, die da fallen) appeared inDramatische
Dichtungen2Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1964), 681.
The action is simple but eventful. Maddy Rooney, minimally
mobile after a protractedlness, shuffles to Boghillstation to meet
her blind husband, Dan, returning from his Dublinffice on his
birthday. The mood is set by Schuberts Death and the Maiden, which
Maddyears from a ruinous old house she passes. She meets the dung
seller Christy; pines forLittle Minnie!, the childshe lost fifty
years earlier; and encounters Mr. Tyler, grandchildless
ecause they removed everything, you know, the whole er bag of
tricks from hisaughter. She is greeted by Mr. Slocum, her old
admirer, now clerk of the racecourse.ickensian comedy unfolds as he
squeezes Maddy into his automobile: Im coming, Mrs.ooney, Im
coming, give me time, Im as stiff as yourself. They run over a hen.
Shencounters Miss Fitt, unfit for the corporeal world: I am not
there (see Footfalls). Maddysks for human kindness, reluctantly
administered (the Protestant thing to do), to help her upo the
platform.
Some mishap has delayed the train, and when it arrives blind Dan
is last to alight. The tone
hanges, from light comedy to dark innuendo. Dan longs to sit
before the fire, blinds drawn, andave Maddy read to him: I think
Effieis going to commit adultery with the Major. As they areered by
the Lynchtwins, Dan asks Maddy, Did you ever wish to kill a child?
(Pause). Nip
ome young doom in the bud. They proceed, Like Dantes damned,
with their faces arsy-ersy. Maddy tells of attending a lecture by
one of these new mind doctors (Jung), who
