Billie Whitelaw performs Samuel Beckett's Not I

Here at the Vampire’s Wife we play tribute to the great Billie Whitelaw, who was Samuel Beckett’s favourite actor and muse. There is a wonderful little BBC documentary, that features her miraculous performance of Beckett’s Play Not I. The play, which is only a single mouth jabbering an inner dialogue at breakneck speed, required that Billie Whitelaw be physically restrained and that her head be held in a vice. The toll on her physically and mentally was legendary. She left behind the most haunting and moving piece of modern theatre we have.


Billie Whitelaw