A Kind of Alaska and Silence

About the production

This production launched Fail Better and explored one of the company's on-going concerns - the relationship between memory and the self. Pinter's symbolic realism provides exceptional opportunities for actors and a tremendously moving experience for audiences. Both plays (presented together for the first time) are poetic and profound, focusing on specific situations as a metaphor for the human condition.

In these plays, one can see the massive influence of Beckett upon Pinter. Indeed, Fail Better Productions (so called after Beckett's profound lines "All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Worstward Ho) also has its artistic roots in the Beckettian tradition.

This production played a variety of venues: the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff; the Warwick Arts Centre; the Play in English Festival, Bratislava, Slovakia; the RSC Summerhouse, Stratford-Upon-Avon. The tour was highly successful and introduced Fail Better to a diversity of audiences. "A fine production" Warwick Boar.