All That Fall - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

All That Fall is a one-act radio play by Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...

produced following a request from the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

. It was written in English and completed in September 1956. The autograph copy is titled Lovely Day for the Races. It was translated, by Robert Pinget

Robert Pinget

Robert Pinget was a major avant-garde French writer, born in Switzerland, who wrote several novels and other prose pieces that drew comparison to Beckett and other major Modernist writers...

, as Tous ceux qui tombent.

When the germ of All that Fall came to him, Beckett wrote to a friend, Nancy Cunard

Nancy Cunard

Nancy Clara Cunard was a writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class but strongly rejected her family's values, devoting much of her life to fighting racism and fascism...

“Never thought about radio play technique but in the dead of t’other night got a nice gruesome idea full of cartwheels and dragging of feet and puffing and panting which may or may not lead to something.”

Although written quickly and with few redrafts, the subject matter was deeply personal causing him to sink into what he called “a whirl of depression

Depression (mood)

Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...

” when he wrote to his US publisher Barney Rosset

Barney Rosset

Barnet Lee Rosset, Jr. is the former owner of the publishing house Grove Press, and publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Evergreen Review. He led a successful legal battle to publish the uncensored version of D. H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, and later was the American...

in August. In fact in September “he cancelled all his appointments in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

for a week simply because he felt wholly incapable of facing people” and worked on the script until its completion.

It was first broadcast on the BBC Third Programme

BBC Third Programme

The BBC Third Programme was a national radio network broadcast by the BBC. The network first went on air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in Britain, playing a crucial role in disseminating the arts...

, 13 January 1957 featuring Mary O'Farrell as Maddy Rooney with J. G. Devlin as her husband, Dan. Soon-to-be Beckett regulars, Patrick Magee

Patrick Magee (actor)

Patrick Magee was a Northern Irish actor best known for his collaborations with Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, as well as his appearances in horror films and in Stanley Kubrick's films A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon.-Early life:He was born Patrick McGee in Armagh, County Armagh, Northern...

and Jack MacGowran

Jack MacGowran

John Joseph "Jack" MacGowran was an Irish character actor, whose last film role was as the alcoholic director Burke Dennings in The Exorcist. He was probably best known for his work with Samuel Beckett.-Stage career:...

also had small parts. The producer was Donald McWhinnie.

The trip there

This is the first work by Beckett where a woman is the central character. In this case it is a gritty, “overwhelmingly capacious”, outspoken, Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

septuagenarian, Maddy Rooney, plagued by “rheumatism

Rheumatism

Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...

and childless

Childless

Childlessness describes a person who does not have any children. The causes of childlessness are many and it has great personal, social and political significance...

ness”. “Beckett emphasized to Billie Whitelaw

Billie Whitelaw

Billie Honor Whitelaw, CBE is an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works...

that Maddy had an Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

accent

Accent (linguistics)

In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside , the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language In...

‘I said, “Like yours,” and he said, “No, no, no, an Irish accent.” I realized he didn't know he had an Irish accent, and that was the music he heard in his head.’”

The opening scene finds Maddy trudging down a country road towards the station, renamed “Boghill” in the play. It’s her husband’s birthday. She’s already given him a tie but decides to surprise him by meeting him off the 12:30 train. It is a fine June morning, a Saturday since her husband is leaving his office at noon rather than five. In the distance the sounds of rural

Rural

Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

animals are heard.

She moves with difficulty. She hears chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

coming from an old house, Schubert’s

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...

“Death and the Maiden

Death and the Maiden Quartet (Schubert)

The String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, known as Death and the Maiden, by Franz Schubert, is one of the pillars of the chamber music repertoire. Composed in 1824, after the composer suffered through a serious illness and realized that he was dying, it is Schubert's testament to death...

”. She stops, listens to the recording and even murmurs along with it before proceeding.

Her first of three encounters with men is with the dung carrier, Christy, who tries to sell her a “small load of … stydung”. She tells him she will consult her husband. The man’s cart is being pulled by a “cleg-tormented” hinny who shows some reluctance to move on and needs to be whipped. As she heads off Maddy’s thoughts return to “Minnie! Little Minnie!”

The smell of laburnum

Laburnum

Laburnum is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae, Laburnum anagyroides and L. alpinum . They are native to the mountains of southern Europe from France to the Balkan Peninsula...

distracts her. Suddenly old Mr Tyler is upon her ringing his cycle bell. Whilst relating how his daughter’s operation has rendered her unable to bear children, they are almost knocked down by Connolly’s van, which covers them “white with dust from head to foot”. Maddy again bemoans the loss of Minnie but refuses to be comforted by Tyler who rides off despite realising that his rear tyre is flat.

Lastly an “old admirer”, Mr Slocum, a racecourse clerk, pulls up in his “limousine” to offer her a ride. She is too fat and awkward to climb in alone so Slocum pushes her in from behind and in doing so her frock gets caught in the door. He tries to start the car but it has died. After applying the choke he does manage to get going and, no sooner having done so, runs over and kills a hen, which Maddy feels the need to eulogise

Eulogy

A eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. However, some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...

.

At each stage of the journey the technology she encounters advances, but despite this each means of locomotion is beset by problems, foreshadowing the problem with the train: she finds walking difficult and is forced to sit down, Christy needs to whip his hinny to make her go, Tyler’s tire goes flat, and Slocum’s engine dies. All the relatives mentioned in this section are female and all the modes of transport are also referred to as females.

The station

At the station Slocum calls on the porter

Porter (railroad)

A porter is a railway employee assigned to assist passengers aboard a passenger train or to handle their baggage; it may be used particularly to refer to employees assigned to assisting passengers in the sleeping cars....

, Tommy, for assistance to extricate his passenger, after which he drives away, “crucifying his gearbox.”
Beckett told Billie Whitelaw that Maddy “is in a state of abortive explosiveness”. This becomes apparent when she considers herself ignored. To the boy Tommy she says abrasively: “Don’t mind me. Don’t take any notice of me. I do not exist. The fact is well known.” As Ruby Cohn quips, “she endures volubly.”

The stationmaster, Mr Barrell, asks after Mrs Rooney’s health. She confesses that she should really still be in bed. We hear of the demise of Mr Barrell’s father, who died shortly after retiring, a tale that reminds Maddy again of her own woes. She notes that the weather has taken a change the worse; the wind is picking up and rain is due.

Miss Fitt approaches so immersed in humming a hymn

Hymn

A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...

she doesn’t see Maddy at first. Miss Fitt, as her name indicates, is a self-righteous misfit. After some discussion she condescends to help the old woman up the stairs to the platform

Railway platform

A railway platform is a section of pathway, alongside rail tracks at a train station, metro station or tram stop, at which passengers may board or alight from trains or trams. Almost all stations for rail transport have some form of platforms, with larger stations having multiple platforms...

, primarily because “it is the Protestant

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

thing to do.”

Unusually the train is late. The noise of the station builds to a crescendo

Dynamics (music)

In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...

but it is an anticlimax; it is the oft-mentioned up mail. Dan’s train comes in moments afterwards. Maddy panics. She can’t find her husband because he has been led to the gents

Toilet

A toilet is a sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement, often found in a small room referred to as a toilet/bathroom/lavatory...

by Jerry, the boy who normally helps him to the taxi. Tightfisted Dan chides her for not cancelling Jerry but still pays his penny

British One Penny coin (pre-decimal)

The English Penny, originally a coin of 1.3 to 1.5 g pure silver, includes the penny introduced around the year 785 by King Offa of Mercia. However, his coins were similar in size and weight to the continental deniers of the period, and to the Anglo-Saxon sceats which had gone before it, which were...

fee. He refuses however to discuss the reason for the train’s lateness. Not without some difficulty – her husband is also not a well man – they descend the stairs and begin the trek home.

On her journey to the station Maddy only had to compete with one person at a time, each an old man. Now she is faced with a crowd. Rather than the flat open countryside she has to contend with a mountainous climb; she refers to the stairs as a “cliff

Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...

”, her husband calls them a “precipice” and Miss Fitt compares them to the “Matterhorn

Matterhorn

The Matterhorn , Monte Cervino or Mont Cervin , is a mountain in the Pennine Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Its summit is 4,478 metres high, making it one of the highest peaks in the Alps. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points...

”, a mountain that for years inspired fear in climbers. Also, the means of transport that are mentioned here, the Titanic, the Lusitania

RMS Lusitania

RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...

and the train due are modes of mass transport and the level of danger shifts from the inconvenient to the potentially lethal. All the relatives mentioned in this section are now male.

The walk home

The weather is worsening. The thought of getting home spurs them on. Dan imagines sitting by the fire in his dressing gown with his wife reading aloud from Effi Briest
Effi Briest
Effi Briest is widely considered to be Theodor Fontane’s masterpiece and one of the most famous German realist novels of all time. Thomas Mann once said that if one had to reduce one’s library to six novels, Effi Briest would have to be one of them...

. The Lynch twins jeer at them from a distance. Dan shakes his stick and chases them off. Previously they have pelted the old couple with mud. “Did you ever wish to kill a child?” Dan asks her then admits to having to resist the impulse within himself. This makes his comment shortly after about being alone in his compartment – “I made no attempt to restrain myself.” – all the more suspicious. This also focuses attention on his remarks about the pros and cons of retirement: one of the negatives he brings up has to do with enduring their neighbour’s children.

Dan is as laconic as Maddy is loquacious. His refusal to explain why the train was delayed forces her to pester him with questions which he does his best to avoid answering. He prevaricates and digresses, anything to throw her off track. Eventually he maintains that he honestly has no clue what the cause was. Being blind and on his own he had simply assumed the train had stopped at a station.

Something Dan says reminds Maddy of a visit she once made to hear “a lecture by one of these new mind doctors. What she heard there was the story of a patient the doctor had failed to cure, a young girl who was dying, and “did in fact die, shortly after he had washed his hands of her.” The reason the doctor gave for the girl’s death, as if the revelation had just come to him there and then, was: “The trouble with her was that she had never really been born!”

As they near the house Maddy passed earlier, Schubert’s music is still playing. Dan starts to cry. To stop her asking questions he asks about the text of Sunday’s sermon

Sermon

A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...

. “The Lord upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up all those that be bowed down,” she tells him, and then they both burst out laughing. Mr Slocum and Miss Fitt had both passed comment on Maddy’s bent posture. Perhaps, this is partly why they laugh: it is the best reaction to a life of unending misery in a world devoid of any God. In Happy Days
Happy Days (play)
Happy Days is a play in two acts, written in English, by Samuel Beckett. He began the play on 8 October 1960 and it was completed on 14 May 1961. Beckett finished the translation into French by November 1962 but amended the title...

, Winnie asks “How can one better magnify the Almighty than by sniggering with him at his little jokes, particularly the poorer ones”. It is worthy of mention too that “it is Mr Tyler, rather than the Lord, who saved the preacher’s life when they were climbing together”. It would be fair to assume that Maddy doesn’t really believe in a god anymore. When she says, “We are alone. There is no one to ask.” She is certainly not talking about there being no one to ask about her husband’s age.

Jerry catches them up to return something Mr Rooney has dropped. Learning that it is some kind of ball he demands the boy hand it to him. When pressed by his wife all he will say is that: “It is a thing I carry about with me,” and becomes angry when pressed on the subject. They have no small change so promise to give Jerry a penny on Monday to compensate him for his trouble.

Just as the boy starts back Maddy calls him to see if he has learned what delayed the train. He has. Dan doesn’t want to know – “Leave the boy alone, he knows nothing! Come on!” – but his wife insists. Jerry tells her that it was a child at which point her husband groans. When pushed for details the boy goes on: “It was a little child fell out of the carriage, Ma’am … Onto the line, Ma’am … Under the wheels, Ma’am.” We assume the child is a girl – all the foreshadowing

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing or adumbrating is a literary device in which an author indistinctly suggests certain plot developments that might come later in the story.-Repetitive designation and Chekhov's gun:...

in the play has been pointing to that – but, crucially, Beckett never actually says. (See his comment to Kay Boyle

Kay Boyle

Kay Boyle was an American writer, educator, and political activist.- Early years :The granddaughter of a publisher, Kay Boyle was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in several cities but principally in Cincinnati, Ohio...

below however).

With that Jerry exits. We hear his steps die away and the couple head off in silence. Maddy must realise the death happened while she was making her way to the station but she is – for once – speechless. All we are left with is the wind and the rain and to wonder what, if anything, Mr Rooney actually had to do with the death of the child.

The third section of the play returns Maddy to the relative calm of the walk home. They encounter a further three people only this time they are all children. The laburnum also serves as an important benchmark. In the opening scene Maddy admires it, now its condition has deteriorated. The weather has also continued to worsen until, at the end, they are in the middle of a “[t]empest of wind and rain”. The actor David Warrilow relates: “When I saw Beckett in January, one of the first things he said was: ‘What do you think of All That Fall?’... [Later I asked him the same question.] And he looked down and said, ‘Well, a number of weaknesses’. [I asked:] ‘Do you mean the production?’ He said, ‘No, no, no. The writing.’... ‘What I really was waiting for was the rain at the end.’”

In 1961 Kay Boyle asked Beckett if, at the end of Happy Days, Willie is reaching for the gun, or for his wife. Beckett replied:

“The question as to which Willie is ‘after’ – Winnie or the revolver

Revolver

A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...

– is like the question in All That Fall as to whether Mr Rooney threw the little girl out of the railway-carriage or not. And the answer is the same in both cases – we don’t know, at least I don’t … I know creatures are supposed to have no secrets for their authors, but I’m afraid mine for me have little else.”

Biographical details

When writing in French, Beckett stripped his text of biographical detail in an attempt to universalise his characters. With his return to English he also returns to the Dublin suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

of Foxrock

Foxrock

Foxrock is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County, in the postal district of Dublin 18 and in the parish of Foxrock.-History:...

for his first radio play. Apart from many uses of common Irish words and phrases, Beckett pulls names, characters and locations from his childhood to deliver a realistic setting for the drama, which is still presented in a manner almost everyone can relate to.

Beckett’s mother shopped at Connolly’s Stores and her purchases delivered by van
Van
A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or groups of people.In British English usage, it can be either specially designed or based on a saloon or sedan car, the latter type often including derivatives with open backs...

as was customary at the time.
Maddy’s journey is from “Brighton Road to Foxrock station” and back again.
James Knowlson claims that Maddy was actually inspired by Beckett’s kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

teacher Ida “Jack” Elsner. In her later years, when she had trouble riding her bicycle, she was known to fall off and be found “sprawling by the roadside until such a time as a passer-by [might come] along to help her up” in a state similar to Maddy after leaving Christy.
“The Becketts employed a gardener called Christy.”
Beckett bought apples from a market-gardener
Market gardening
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. It is distinguishable from other types of farming by the diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically, from under one acre ...

named Watt Tyler on his walk home from school. The Tylers and Becketts also shared a pew
Pew
A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...

at Tullow Church, the church referred to in the text.
Slocum was the surname of his cousin John Beckett’s future wife, Vera.
Mr Tully was a local dairy
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...

man.
Dunne, Maddy’s maiden name, was the local butcher on Bray Road.
Miss Fitt’s name, aside from being a wonderful pun, may have been inspired by a classmate of Beckett’s at Portora School named E.G. Fitt or a Rathgar
Rathgar
Rathgar is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, lying about 3 kilometres south of the city centre.-Amenities:Rathgar is largely a quiet suburb with good amenities, including primary and secondary schools, nursing homes, child-care and sports facilities, and good public transport to the city centre...

lady resident.
The racecourse
Race track
A race track is a purpose-built facility for racing of animals , automobiles, motorcycles or athletes. A race track may also feature grandstands or concourses. Some motorsport tracks are called speedways.A racetrack is a permanent facility or building...

is Leopardstown Racecourse.
Mr Barrell’s name is a nod to Thomas Farrell, “the persnickety railroad stationmaster
Station master
The station master was the person in charge of railway stations, in the United Kingdom and some other countries, before the modern age. He would manage the other station employees and would have responsibility for safety and the efficient running of the station...

in the Foxrock of his youth” who often took first prize for the “best-kept” station on the line.
When Maddy mentions that the preacher for Sunday is to be Hardy, Dan wonders if this is the author of “How to be Happy though Married?” “There was in Foxrock, in Kerrymount Avenue, a Rev E. Hardy, not to be confused with Edward John Hardy, the author” of the aforementioned book.

Of course, “[t]he events in Beckett's life leave their traces in the shape of his work, without necessarily leaving an inventory in its content.”

Interpretation

Q: "Why did the chicken cross the road?Why did the chicken cross the road? "Why did the chicken cross the road?" is a common riddle or joke in several languages. The answer or punchline is: "To get to the other side". The riddle is an example of anti-humor, in that the curious setup of the joke leads the listener to expect a traditional punchline, but they are instead... " A: "To get to the other side."

MRS ROONEY: It is suicide to be abroad.

“All That Fall manages to develop a highly dynamic genre

Genre

Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

in radio drama through a multi-layered script, which can be read as tragicomedy

Tragicomedy

Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...

, a murder mystery

Crime fiction

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

, a cryptic literary riddle

Riddle

A riddle is a statement or question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and...

or a quasi-musical score.”

It’s said that, death is no joking matter. The thing is, with Beckett it is and this play is crammed full of references to it. The play’s setting is realistic enough and the characters too, if a little grotesque, but hardly anyone’s life has not rubbed shoulders with Death, from the unfortunate hen mowed down by Slocum’s car to the poor child thrown from the train. It is the dominant theme but far from the only one.

Death

Schubert’s Death and the Maiden is heard at the start and near the end of the drama, setting the theme from the outset.
All parts of the laburnum
Laburnum
Laburnum is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae, Laburnum anagyroides and L. alpinum . They are native to the mountains of southern Europe from France to the Balkan Peninsula...

are poisonous; “children should be warned never to touch the black seeds contained within the pods as they contain an alkaloid
Alkaloid
Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...

poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....

.”
Maddy’s daughter, Minnie, appears to have died as a child. Vivian Mercier
Vivian Mercier
Vivian Mercier was an Irish literary critic. He was born in Clara, County Offaly, Ireland and educated first at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, and then at Trinity College, Dublin. He became a Scholar of the College and edited the student magazine T.C.D...

goes so far as to suppose that the child may only ever have existed in Maddy’s imagination a view supported by Rosemary Pountney.
Maddy tells Tyler: “It is suicide to be abroad.” The pun is often commented on (i.e. a broad). The alternative would be to remain fœtus
Fetus
A fetus is a developing mammal or other viviparous vertebrate after the embryonic stage and before birth.In humans, the fetal stage of prenatal development starts at the beginning of the 11th week in gestational age, which is the 9th week after fertilization.-Etymology and spelling variations:The...

-like in the womb
Uterus
The uterus or womb is a major female hormone-responsive reproductive sex organ of most mammals including humans. One end, the cervix, opens into the vagina, while the other is connected to one or both fallopian tubes, depending on the species...

of the home. “The topography
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...

in All That Fall is distinctly hostile to the females – human or animal – who try to walk through it. Maddy’s comment ‘It is suicide to be a broad’ suggests that her death will be her own fault, namely the fault of being born a woman.”
When she arrives at the station Maddy describes herself in such a way as to conjure up the image of a corpse being shroud
Shroud
Shroud usually refers to an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to burial sheets, winding-cloths or winding-sheets, such as the famous Shroud of Turin or Tachrichim that Jews are dressed in for burial...

ed for burial.
She recalls the lecture where the doctor spoke about a young girl who died.
Slocum’s car dies and is started again only with difficulty.
No sooner having done so it runs over a chicken crossing the road, killing it.
Barrell’s father died a short time after his son took over as stationmaster.
When the train arrives – but before she meets her husband Maddy – remarks that Mr Barrell looks as if he has seen a ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

.
Her husband comments that she is “struggling with a dead language”.
Jerry returns “a kind of ball” to Mr Rooney. Although not an obvious symbol of death, this ball is a significant motif of childhood grief for Beckett.
Miss Fitt believes she not really of this world and left to herself “would soon be flown … home.” “I suppose the truth is, “she tells Mrs Rooney, “I am not there … just not really there at all.” (See Footfalls).
As she assists Maddy up the stairs she begins to hum the hymn, Lead, Kindly Light, which is one of the tunes reportedly played as the Titanic was sinking.
The sinking of the Lusitania is mentioned; 1,198 people died with her, including almost a hundred children.
Tyler thinks that Miss Fitt has lost her mother (as in death) but it turns out that she simply cannot find her because the train is late; thus, since the mother is bringing fresh sole
Sole (fish)
Sole is a group of flatfish belonging to several families. Generally speaking, they are members of the family Soleidae, but, outside Europe, the name sole is also applied to various other similar flatfish, especially other members of the sole suborder Soleoidei as well as members of the flounder...

(soul), there is still hope that the mother is not lost.
A female voice warns young Dolly not to stand close because “one can be sucked under.”
On their way home Dan asks his wife if she’s ever contemplated killing a child.
He refers to his time at work as being “buried alive … not even certified death
Death certificate
The phrase death certificate can describe either a document issued by a medical practitioner certifying the deceased state of a person or popularly to a document issued by a person such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death as later...

can ever take the place of that”. Dan’s workplace is at the terminus, the end of the line (pun intended), and, with its “‘rest-couch and velvet hangings’, the office seems womblike, but a “wombtomb”, a womb after life rather than before.”
Dan thinks he can smell a dead dog in a ditch but is told its only rotting leaves despite the fact that it’s only Summer.
He also alludes to Matthew 10:29 about the death of sparrow
Sparrow
The sparrows are a family of small passerine birds, Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, or Old World sparrows, names also used for a genus of the family, Passer...

s.
The play ends, of course, with the revelation that the train was late due to the death of a young child under its wheels.
At one point Maddy – who thinks she is still talking to the stationmaster – says: “Then at evening the clouds will part, the setting sun will shine an instant, then sink, behind the hills.” This phrase evokes the famous description of the birth astride a grave from Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...

reminding us that the best of life only lasts an instant before darkness consumes it once more. Beckett emphasis this in All That Fall by making all the characters either young or old, focusing on the beginnings and end of life; the rest is of little consequence.
Another Beckettian leitmotif
Leitmotif
A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...

is underlined by a seemingly innocuous remark made by Maddy when other characters take control of the conversation for a moment: “Do not imagine, because I am silent, that I am not present.” In radio a character only ‘exists’ for as long as we can hear him or her. This reminds us of the many Beckett characters that feel compelled to keep talking to prove they exist.

Sickness

Maddy is obese
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...

, suffers from rheumatism, “heart and kidney trouble”and has been bed-ridden for some time. On the return journey she twice mentions feeling cold, weak, and faint.
When Maddy asks about his “poor” wife Christy replies that she is “no better.” Nor is his daughter.
Tyler’s only optimistic comments are made about the weather. He says, “Ah in spite of all it is a blessed thing to be alive in such weather, and out of hospital.” This could be taken to mean he has just come out of hospital – he refers to himself being “half alive” – though it could equally refer to his daughter’s recent surgery.
Slocum’s mother is “fairly comfortable” and he’s managing to keep her out of pain.
Dan is blind, suffers from an old wound and has a heart condition.
Mrs Tully’s “husband is in constant pain and beats her unmercifully.”

Sex

Tyler and Maddy flirt. Tyler, who had pumped his tire firm before departing, now finds his rear tire flat. He cycles off riding on the rim. As he leaves, Maddy complains about her corset
Corset
A corset is a garment worn to hold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes...

and shouts after him an indecent invitation to unlace her behind a hedge.
Mr Slocum (slow come) squeezes Maddy into his car: “I’m coming, Mrs Rooney, I’m coming, give me time, I’m as stiff as yourself.” She makes sexual innuendo
Innuendo
An innuendo is a baseless invention of thoughts or ideas. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging , that works obliquely by allusion...

s that she is in a compromising position. She giggles and shouts in delight when she finally gets in the car and Slocum is left panting in exhaustion. The sexual connotation is continued when her dress is ripped in the door. As if actually guilty of adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...

, Maddy wonders what her husband will say when he discovers the tear in her dress.
Tyler points out that the 12:30 train has not yet arrived and that one can tell by the signal at the “bawdy hour of nine.” This is another reference to sex in the play and a humorous one as the stationmaster stifles a guffaw.
Maddy tries to get Dan to kiss her at the station but he refuses. Later she asks him to put his arm around her. She says that it will be like old times. He rebuffs her again; he wants to get home quickly so that she can read to him. He says of the book, “I think Effie is going to commit adultery with the Major.” This indicates Dan is more interested in the romance of novels than with his wife. Is it possible that Maddy, still flirtatious in her seventies, was unfaithful earlier in their marriage?

Birth

If Maddy’s entry into the car has sexual connotations, her exit certainly reminds one of childbirth

Childbirth

Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...

: “Crouch down, Mrs Rooney, crouch down, and get your head in the open … Press her down, sir … Now! She’s coming!”

This is not the only ‘birth’ in the play. When describing his journey home, particularly the portion during the delay, Dan says it was like “being confined” an expression used to describe the concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of labour to the birth. “If an underlying birth-scenario seems far-fetched, we might consider Maddy’s cries at the climax of the station scene: ‘The up mail! The up mail! (a pun evident earlier in the play) – together with Tommy’s cry: ‘She’s coming!’ – and, on the arrival of the down train, the direction (thoroughly in the spirit of the one in Happy Days, which describes Willie as ‘dressed to kill’), ‘clashing of couplings’. When Dan finally emerges from ‘the men’s’ Maddy tells him that it is his birthday.” Immediately after this Maddy begins her recollection of the girl who was not properly born.

“If [Dan] has a role, it is perhaps that of the gravedigger

Gravedigger

A gravedigger is a cemetery worker responsible for digging graves used in the process of burial.-Fossors:Fossor or Fossarius , from the Latin verb fodere 'to dig', referred to grave diggers in the Roman catacombs in the first three centuries of the Christian Era...

/obstetrician

Obstetrics

Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...

of the Godot image ‘[putting] on the forceps

Forceps

Forceps or forcipes are a handheld, hinged instrument used for grasping and holding objects. Forceps are used when fingers are too large to grasp small objects or when many objects need to be held at one time while the hands are used to perform a task. The term 'forceps' is used almost exclusively...

’ … Between Death and the Maiden he seems to be the mediator.” Dan gives birth to death.

Children

In this play the old keep on living – Dan, for example, has no idea what age he is and, if he turned out to be a hundred it wouldn’t surprise him – but the young die. If a divine being is behind this then his logic is in question. According to Richard Coe's interpretation of All That Fall, God kills "… without a reason."

Girls

Christy’s hinny is sterile
Infertility
Infertility primarily refers to the biological inability of a person to contribute to conception. Infertility may also refer to the state of a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy to full term...

.
Maddy has no children and has passed the age when she could conceive.
When Maddy thinks about where Minnie would be now she pictures her approaching the menopause
Menopause
Menopause is a term used to describe the permanent cessation of the primary functions of the human ovaries: the ripening and release of ova and the release of hormones that cause both the creation of the uterine lining and the subsequent shedding of the uterine lining...

.
Tyler’s daughter has needed a hysterectomy
Hysterectomy
A hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus, usually performed by a gynecologist. Hysterectomy may be total or partial...

so his line will die with her.
Dolly does not die but she is in mortal danger.
Miss Fitt fears the loss of her mother.

Boys

Tommy is an orphan
Orphan
An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
Jerry’s father has recently been taken away leaving him alone.
The gender of the Lynch twins is not specified but their actions, as well as their placement in the text, points to the likelihood that they are males probably based on the twins, Art and Con, that appear in Watt
Watt (novel)
Watt was Samuel Beckett's second published novel in English, largely written on the run in the south of France during the Second World War and published by Maurice Girodias's Olympia Press in 1953...

. “The hostility of these children …reinforces the basic image of childlessness both in its presentation of children as alien to the Rooneys and in the way it provokes” Dan’s question about thinking about killing a child.

Dante

Beckett retained lifelong affection for Dante

Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...

evident by the fact that his student copy of The Divine Comedy would be beside his deathbed in December 1989. References are found throughout all his work but it shouldn’t necessarily be assumed that what he is describing here is an aspect of Hell

Hell

In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

Tyler’s remark, “I was merely cursing, under my breath, God and man, under my breath, and the wet Saturday afternoon of my conception.” is reminiscent of the line from Canto III of the Inferno when Dante describes the cries of the condemned souls with which Charon
Charon (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on...

loads his ferry to cross the Acheron
Acheron
The Acheron is a river located in the Epirus region of northwest Greece. It flows into the Ionian Sea in Ammoudia, near Parga.-In mythology:...

. Dante writes, “They cursed God, their parents, the human race, the place, the time, the seed of their begetting and of their birth.”http://home.earthlink.net/~zimls/HELLIII.html#55
The steep steps to the station recall Mount Purgatory in Dante’s Purgatory.
Rooney suggests to his wife that they continue their journey walking backwards. He says, “Yes. Or you forwards and I backwards. The perfect pair. Like Dante’s damned, with their faces arsy-versy. Our tears will water our bottoms.” Dan is referring to Dante’s great lovers, Paolo and Francesca
Francesca da Rimini
Francesca da Rimini or Francesca da Polenta was the daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna. She was a historical contemporary of Dante Alighieri, who portrayed her as a character in the Divine Comedy.-Arranged marriage:...

, doomed to hell for adultery and constantly locked in each other’s embrace. (Inferno Canto V) http://home.earthlink.net/~zimls/HELLV.html#top

Music

The music at the beginning of the play not only provides its theme, it also provides its shape.

“The exposition, Maddy’s slow outward journey, is the ‘feminine’ (i.e., dominance of a female voice and female themes).
“The development, the wait at the railway station, becomes more ‘masculine’ (Maddy’s voice risks being crowded out by male characters who talk among themselves and are often oblivious to Maddy’s presence). It is scherzo
Scherzo
A scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...

-like in pace, due to the hustle and bustle on the platform.
“The final movement or recapitulation is the couple’s return journey, which slows again and sees the submission of the feminine voice to the more brutish male tones of Dan Rooney.

“This suggested structure of the plot owes more to basic sonata form

Sonata form

Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...

than to theme and variation

Variation (music)

In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...

. This is the form of the first movement of the Quartet in D minor.”
Rosemary Pountey goes so far as to tabulate the themes for both journeys showing the circular structure, even though “the play ends in a linear fashion”:

Outward Journey	Inward Journey
1. Footsteps	12. Footsteps
2. Death and the Maiden	11. Dead child – killed by train
3. Hinny	10. Wild laughter
4. Dung	9. Hardy
5. Mrs Rooney’s language	8. Death and the Maiden
6. Laburnum	7. Dung
7. Hardy	6. Hinnies
8. Rural Sounds	5. Laburnum
9. Wild laughter	4. Mrs Rooney’s language
10. Dead hen – killed by car	3. Rural Sounds
11. Up station steps	2. Down station steps
12. Up mail passes →	1. Down train draws in

A remark made by Professor Harry White about Beckett’s later dramatic work gives an idea of the demands made upon the listener in this and his subsequent radio work:

“Like listening to difficult music for the first time.”

By comparing Beckett’s work to that of serial

Serialism

In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...

composers such as Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...

and Webern

Anton Webern

Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...

, White highlights the difficulties for listeners who are obliged to actively engage with challenging new form and content. Any meaning or deep structure will only become clear with repeated listening.

Sound Effects

Since the journey of the main character is presented psychologically, Beckett asked for natural sounds to be adapted in unnatural ways. “New methods,” Martin Esslin

Martin Esslin

Martin Julius Esslin OBE was a Hungarian-born English producer and playwright dramatist, journalist, adaptor and translator, critic, academic scholar and professor of drama best known for coining the term "Theatre of the Absurd" in his work of that name...

writes, “had to be found to extract the various sounds needed (both animal and mechanical – footsteps, cars, bicycle wheels, the train, the cart) from the simple naturalism of the hundreds of records in the BBC’s effects library. Desmond Briscoe

Desmond Briscoe

Harry Desmond Briscoe was an English composer, sound engineer and studio manager. He was the co-founder and original manager of the pioneering BBC Radiophonic Workshop....

[sound technician] (and his gramophone operator, Norman Baines) had to invent ways and means to remove these sounds from the purely realistic sphere. They did so by treating them electronically: slowing down, speeding up, adding echo, fragmenting them by cutting them into segments, and putting them together in new way.” Actors produced the sounds of all the animals but “Beckett was actually unimpressed by the use of human voices for the rural sounds when he listened into the … broadcast.”

"These experiments, and the discoveries made as they evolved, led directly to the establishment of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

BBC Radiophonic Workshop

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, one of the sound effects units of the BBC, was created in 1958 to produce effects and new music for radio, and was closed in March 1998, although much of its traditional work had already been outsourced by 1995. It was based in the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in Delaware...

. Beckett and All That Fall thus directly contributed to one of the most important technical advances in the art of radio (and the technique, and indeed technology, of radio in Britain)."

Staged productions

Beckett conceived All That Fall as a radio play. To Beckett’s mind it was unthinkable to transfer it to another medium and yet it was done, and in his lifetime.

Beckett admonished Barney Rossett, on 27 August 1957, saying of All That Fall: "It is no more theatre than Endgame
Endgame (play)
Endgame, by Samuel Beckett, is a one-act play with four characters, written in a style associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. It was originally written in French ; as was his custom, Beckett himself translated it into English. The play was first performed in a French-language production at the...

is radio and to 'act' it is to kill it. Even the reduced visual dimension it will receive from the simplest and most static of readings ... will be destructive of whatever quality it may have and which depends on the whole thing's coming out of the dark. And yet despite this fact “Beckett authorised a French TV version adapted by Robert Pinget, shown on RTF

Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française

Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was the French national public broadcasting organization established on 9 February 1949 to replace the post-war "Radiodiffusion Française" , which had been founded in 1945...

on 25 January 1963. A German stage production was given at the Schiller-Theatre, Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

in January 1966; Beckett was not happy with either.”

“When … Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...

asked if he could stage both radio plays, All That Fall and Embers
Embers
Embers is a radio play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1957 and first broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 24 June 1959. Donald McWhinnie directed Jack MacGowran – for whom the play was specially written – as “Henry”, Kathleen Michael as “Ada” and Patrick Magee as “Riding Master”...

, the answer was a firm ‘No’".The same went, in 1969, when Sir Laurence Olivier

Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

and his wife visited him to persuade him to allow them to produce a version at the National Theatre

Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

. “They had refused to accept his written refusals and made the trip … anyway. There he greeted them with politeness and offered limited hospitality, but remained steadfast in his decision.”

“[S]ince his death [Beckett’s] Estate has assiduously followed his wishes. Permission is granted only for faithful radio productions or for staged readings in which producers agree to limit the action to actors speaking the lines and walking to and from chairs. The director John Sowle, in his [1997] staging of All That Fall … cleverly identified a loophole in the rules: since the play requires many elaborate and self-consciously artificial sound-effects, the production of those effects can become a spectacle in its own right. On stage at the Cherry Lane are a wind machine

Wind machine

The wind machine is a specialist musical instrument used to produce the sound of wind. One type uses an electric fan with wooden slats added to produce the required sound...

, gravel-trays, bells, coconuts, a stationary bike and much more. Furthermore, the actors, who read in front of old-fashioned mikes, dressed in 1950s clothes, never acknowledge the audience, even at the curtain call

Curtain call

A curtain call occurs at the end of a performance when individuals return to the stage to be recognized by the audience for their performance. In musical theater, the performers typically recognize the orchestra and its conductor at the end of the curtain call...

. The conceit is that they're performing a live sound-stage broadcast of the play on which we're eavesdropping.”

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) have been granted permission to stage 'All That Fall' in the Summer of 2008. This was the European premiére.

Pan Pan, an Irish theatre company, staged the play in August 2011 in the Project Arts Centre, Dublin. A recording of the play was broadcast into the empty theatre space where the audience sat on rocking chairs overlooked by a lighting array on one wall and lowly lit lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. This production was intended to provide a shared theatrical experience while preserving the wishes of the author.

External links

Text of the play – Questia (subscription required)
Extract from the original BBC broadcast (Windows Media
Windows Media
Windows Media is a multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit with several application programming interfaces and a number of prebuilt technologies, and is the replacement of NetShow technologies.The Windows Media SDK...

) - mms://audio.bl.uk/media/beckett.wma

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