One might think the fear is from having to carry a show by himself for nearly an hour or from the prospect of having the audience so close to him. But no, Simon O'Connor is most fearful of not doing Samuel Beckett justice.
''By the time I get on to that stage . . . I'm going to be in Krapp's head so it's not going to be intimidating. The only thing that is intimidating is Mr Samuel Beckett.
''It is such an incredible piece of work, I just want to do it justice.''
Beckett, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, wrote Krapp's Last Tape in 1958 to explore the possible significance of a new piece of technology: the reel-to-reel tape recorder.
The play is about a man at the end of his life who listens to a recording of his younger self and reflects on his life and his failures.
Fortune artistic director Jonathon Hendry, who is directing the play, describes it as one of the greatest roles for a male actor.
''You need to have an actor up for the virtuoso nature of this play,'' Hendry says.
''The genius of Krapp is that he's not nice to himself.
O'Connor agrees. ''He's deeply critical of himself, even now.''
Beckett grew up in a time when silent movies were the main entertainment. He also saw Vaudeville acts and clowns on stage, such as Buster Keaton, who was a favourite of his.
''This piece draws from tradition of the silent movie clown,'' Hendry says.
Luckily for the Fortune, O'Connor (Outside Mullingar, The War Play, The Keys are in the Margarine, Over the River and Through the Woods) was able to take them up on the offer made about a year ago.
''That was a year before I had to do anything about it. You say yes to a hell lot of things and I blithely said yes, fantastic, terrific,'' O'Connor says.
''I suppose I've been working on it since then for a few months since the fear started to kick in.''
While Krapp and O'Connor are of a similar age, O'Connor says the similarities end there.
''He's my age but he's much more decrepit than I am, of course - I have to act that, act a lot.''
Krapp recorded a retrospective of his year every year on his birthday and, on his 69th, decided to listen to the recording made on his 39th birthday.
''So there is this incredible gap between the two. In a sense, there are two characters in this play. They are the same person 30 years apart but they are hardly even the same person. Well, they are and they aren't.
''It's such a complex play.
''It is very funny but it's funny because the pathos is so close to the humour, it's inseparable.''
It forces him to look at the ambitions he had, what drove him and what happens when he looks back 30 years later to see where he is in relation to those ambitions, he said.
''It's challenging, enlightening.''
Beckett's script is so precise, everything is crystalline and compressed, the words, the setting, the images.
''So for an actor, for me, it's sorting out how to prioritise that stuff, because actors can't play two things at once.''
However, he knew whatever he chose to play, the rest would ''come along in its wake''.
''Whatever you do should be absolutely deft and apparently spontaneous, but it's like an explosion of possibilities at the same time
''The images are just so crystalline, there is so much in them each moment it is like a bomb full of possibilities.''
While it has been quite a heavy piece for O'Connor to get into, he hopes that by opening night it will be ''very light''.
''It's like some bit of cuisine that is awfully complicated, almost onerous in the making, but comes out as lightest meringue.''
Hendry is enjoying working with O'Connor, having had a long history with the production, including playing Krapp himself in his drama school days.
''I was crap at playing Krapp as I was too young.''
He was about 8 years old when he first saw the play at the Marlborough Repertory.
''I was struck by it, even as a young kid. It was both funny and sad.''
Not too long ago, he was speaking to his old drama school mate Simon Bennett - revisiting Krapp was suggested.
''It's one of those plays you want to go back to and now I'm looking at it from a slightly closer perspective.''
Now he has memories of the past and it entertains him to think about what he chooses to remember, ''how you imagine what you'll be and how you now look at the person you once were''.
The set
While the play continues to be produced throughout the world since its debut in 1958, Hendry wanted to do something different with its set.
''We're not doing a history piece. We are doing something different.''
The play was originally written for a proscenium arched stage so Hendry is converting it with the help of the Fortune's design team for a much smaller venue - the Fortune's Murray Hutchinson Studio.
''I wanted to explore the idea of how the theatre can be close and it can be an experience to have the ability to make this up close and personal.''
The idea was to have the audience literally enter Krapp's den.
Set designer Peter King says: ''It will feel like we are in Krapp's mind and space - there will be no visible ''theatre'' equipment and his world will spill out into the corridor. The set will feature a disused lift shaft that represents the lack of movement in Krapp's life.''
Hendry says putting O'Connor in such a space means he does not have to ''act big; he can just be Krapp''.
It will be like the audience is the camera, as Krapp will have no idea there is an audience there.
''It'll be like walking into this very weird, peculiar den where a man has recorded all these things and there are all these tapes and a tape recorder and lights he turns on and off.
''It excites me a lot.''
Trying different ways to stage shows was an important part of investigating how a theatre experience is different from other entertainment options, he says.
''We're not taking away from Beckett; hopefully, we're adding to the experience.''
To see
Krapp’s Last Tape, Fortune Theatre, September 30-October 22.
