You can watch a famous Beckett play through a house window in a Philly neighborhood

Houses, houses, and more houses — that’s what Lane Savadove sees when he looks out the windows of his office on the second floor of his high-ceilinged South Philadelphia brownstone.

“We’re so close, yet we’re so disconnected,” said Savadove, founding artistic director of Philadelphia’s EgoPo Classic Theater and co-director of its next production, Rockaby, Samuel Beckett’s ultra-short masterpiece.

“I can probably see 60 different houses,” Savadove said, talking about both his view and his inspiration, “and inside each one of them is another human being, or set of humans, socially isolating, living the entire drama of their lives, within their houses, alone.”

Which is why, for him, Rockaby, makes perfect sense for right now. In theaters, a single actor rocks in a chair, looking out a window and longing for connection. Her inner musings are broadcast — not spoken — to the audience. She utters but four words in a play that deals with loss, life’s meaning, and the passage of time.

In the EgoPo production, a single actor rocks in her chair behind a window. An audience of one, masked, sits outside. Inside, the blinds roll up and the play begins. Audience and actor sit just a few feet apart, separated by glass, her musings transmitted via a set of disposable headphones.

As the pandemic deepened, theater companies innovated – not surprising, given their creative spirit. “We had to reconsider the delivery of theater, so we could still make theater,” Savadove said.

EgoPo, for example, began its “Isolation Season” delivering theater by mail with Emily, the story of poet Emily Dickinson. Next was Underground, a virtual film event created by Damien J. Wallace, artist-in-residence at EgoPo and codirector of Rockaby. Wallace, a longtime Philadelphia actor, is artistic director of Lawrence Theatre Co., Philadelphia’s theater company for emerging Black stories. Up after Rockaby is a drive-in version of Adam Rapp’s Nocturne.

For Rockaby, (March 10-21), ticketholders can pay $25 to choose one of three “theater” locations, each with a different actor — Cathy Simpson in Point Breeze, Karen Vicks in East Oak Lane, Melanie Julian in Passyunk Crossing.

Or, they can buy a $60 “passport” to view the 10-minute Beckett production in all three settings, with all three actors.

An email will direct ticketholders to a neighborhood street corner, where they’ll be met by a masked usher, given a disposable set of headphones, and led to a sanitized chair by a window outside a nearby house. A canopy will provide shelter from rain.

The players’ work will be grueling. Each production day, they’ll perform the play 15 times in three hours — 10 minutes at the window, interspersed by breaks.

“The challenge is to be able to tell the story and really give it the same excitement as you did the prior performance and the one after that,” said Vicks. “More than anything, it’s a love of what you do as an actor and whether you are willing to take a challenge and make it something that really is profound.”

It’ll be intense, because, although actor and audience will be gazing at each other, separated only by glass, they won’t be interacting – at least not directly.

For both audience and actor, there’s an element of voyeurism – not too different from the way we, isolated, watch without watching, hiding behind our windows.

“It’s very intimate,” Vicks said. “There is some subtlety to what you can you do with your body when you are looking at them dead-on. It can either be frightening or enlightening,” but the goal will be to connect deeply.

For codirector Wallace, the play has particular significance because “it’s universal. Everyone wrestles with mortality,” as Wallace himself did.

When the pandemic struck, Wallace, like many theater people, lost his livelihood. So, he doubled up on his side job, driving for Lyft. As Wallace was driving a passenger from the airport, the passenger began to sneeze violently. The next day, Wallace became sick and soon tested positive for COVID-19, complete with chills, a cough, and shortness of breath.

“It gave me a new perspective on life,” he said. “I have a stronger understanding on how precious life is and how quickly it can be taken from you, how interconnected we are, and how interdependent we are.

“We are all living in isolation,” Wallace said, “the play highlights it. It’s someone dealing with their past and seeing how life has passed her by.

“She’s fading into afterlife and has to wrestle with these memories and what’s happening to her,” Wallace said.

“And she’s all alone.”

Rockaby

EgoPo Classic Theater production, March 10-21, $25 for one performance, $60 for three-show passport, specific times and meet-up locations provided following purchase. Details and tickets at egopo.org

janevonbtheater@gmail.com