AN elderly man sits at a desk on which an oldfashioned tape recorder is placed. He gets up, takes keys from his pocket, shuffles around the desk and unlocks one of the drawers. He pulls a banana from the drawer. He peels it. He eats it. He sits down. Then he repeats his actions.

Eventually, he puts a tape on the machine and plays it. The voice belongs to him, his younger self. What he hears disturbs him. He sets up the microphone and begins recording his thoughts for his last tape.

Samuel Beckett’s hour-long play is full of pauses and surprises as a lone character reflects on the disappointments of his life and makes one last attempt to come to terms with what he’s achieved, or perhaps failed to achieve.

York audiences last saw Kenneth Alan Taylor, pictured, in a very different guise – as a pantomime dame. That was all make-up and glitter, this time he’s more grubby Albert Steptoe than sequinned Danny La Rue.

More is less as the elderly man goes about his business, drawing us into a life he feels has been wasted. The actor holds the audience gripped for the play’s hour, not afraid of silences or mining the character for humour.

Until October 24. Tickets 01904-623568 or online yorktheatreroyal.co.uk