Rufus Norris’s production of Samuel Beckett’s *Not I* presents soprano Claire Booth’s rapidly moving mouth alone against a black background. The stark image and Booth’s intense performance convey a desperate woman’s fragmented thoughts, suggesting a lifetime of suffering being relived near the moment of death.

The 15-minute play follows a programme including Luciano Berio’s experimental *Sequenza III* and films about Beckett’s connection with Folkestone, though the review considers this buildup unnecessary. Booth combines breathless speech, repetitions, verbal breakdowns and operatic phrasing to portray a woman asserting her existence through language, before the darkness finally overwhelms her.