All That Fall

All That Fall is a one-act radio play by Samuel Beckett produced following a request from the BBC. 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, as Tous ceux qui tombent.

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

“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” when he wrote to his US publisher Barney Rosset in August. In fact in September “he cancelled all his appointments in Paris 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, 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 and Jack MacGowran also had small parts. The producer was Donald McWhinnie.