In under an hour, Fragments (directed by marie-Hélène Estienne and the legendary Peter Brook) delivers five short plays by Samuel Beckett, along with a reminder to any writer whose work tends to bloat: Brevity is power. The two-handers Rough for Theatre I and Act Without Words II (both brought off brilliantly by Jos Houben and Marcello Magni) are fat-free exemplars of classic Beckett—shambling power struggles, repetition, bursts of slapstick—and Come and Go (featuring three mid-century female friends in a cycle of gossip and pity) is a simultaneously heartwarming and heartchilling revisitation of Macbeth's trio of witches. Seems I've run out of space for the rest. Fail, fail again.
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