Hail Beckett
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Otis Westinghouse
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Hail Beckett
April 13th was the centenary of the birth of Beckett, a writer who did astonishing things both for the sage and in prose. He's generally regarded as a playwright first and foremost, but I would say his prose work is the equal of his stage work, from the bleak comedy of early classics like Watt through to the majesty of the Molloy/Malone Dies/The Unnameable trilogy, and the often beautiful shorter works, which are like the shorter stage monologues, only inside the head. He was a fascinating character, and one of the most endlessly photographable people ever. Here's thinking of you, Sam.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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Otis Westinghouse
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so lacklustre
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I can claim to have had a fleeting encounter with old Mr Glum himself. Holidaying in Paris in June 1987 , me 'n a friend, Michael, spotted him up ahead of us, on the Boulevard St Germain . In awe of him I suggested to Michael that he just merely grab a photo of him. Michael had just got his camera and used to take ages to take a picture , setting light levels , framing etc. He decided to approach old Sammy and ask him to pose. Gobsmacked at his bravery I watch him approach. Beckett leaned forward in the crowded , busy street to hear Michael ; he promptly responded by waving his hands and scurrying away , saying 'Allez, allez' as he vanished into the multitude.
My favourite Beckett work is Krapp's Last Tape, one of his more straight forward pieces, which I saw John Hurt performing here in Dublin in 1999.
I have memories of the making of a recent film of Waiting For Godot. It's director , Michael Lindsay-Hogg ( Let It Be , Brideshead Revisited etc.) lived , at the time , around the corner from my shop . Michael would regale us with details of the filming, done primarily in a disused creamery in Co. Monaghan in November '00. The tiny budget allowed for something like a week of filming . Nearly all the dialogue had to be overdubbed later because of the sound of non-stop rain hitting the roof. The local roads were only exceeded in their direness by the locals driving ability. And as for the food! MLH had to suffer for his art etc.
The film's 'Premiere', on a Sunday evening in the Irish Film Centre the following Feb. , was equally low-budget. I was chatting, in the foyer, with Michael before the showing. His partner Lisa appeared at his side ; she needed change to get a coffee. It was all so amusing . Here was the film's director , just before the premiere , having to rummage in his pockets for coins.
I think Sam would have liked it !
And that's enough name dropping for the moment..........
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John Kelly , Elvis' buddy in Irish radio , is featured in this ; small world etc..
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/theat ... ei=5087%0A
April 15, 2006
Beckett, Master of the Bleak, Gets a Birthday Bash in Dublin
By BRIAN LAVERY
DUBLIN, April 12 — In the surprise hit show of Ireland's monthlong festival celebrating Samuel Beckett, who was born on April 13 100 years ago, the star actor does not say a word: Sir Michael Gambon sits on a bed and listens to a disembodied recorded woman's voice for about 30 minutes.
Enthusiastic audiences, mesmerized by the subtle reactions of Sir Michael's weathered features, have been snapping up tickets at prices that average out at a dollar a minute.
The popularity of "Eh Joe," a relatively unknown 1965 script that Beckett wrote for television, has been one of many pleasant revelations during a month in his native city when Beckett is, quite simply, inescapable.
Like the face of Big Brother, Beckett's hawklike visage glares down from banners fluttering alongside the River Liffey and over cobblestone streets in the Temple Bar cultural district here. National radio and television stations broadcast his plays daily. A weeklong academic symposium drew crowds to Trinity College. The American artist Jenny Holzer projected quotations from Beckett's work onto Dublin landmarks, shining them with powerful lights onto the sides of the buildings.
The presence of the rock star Bono at the opening event of the festival, where he read one of his own Beckett-style poems, helped propel the festival onto newspaper front pages and into the national consciousness. Seventeen years after his death, and almost 60 years after he redefined modern drama with "Waiting for Godot," Beckett is undeniably en vogue.
"As a role model, he's as hip and cool as can possibly be," said John Kelly, a radio disc jockey who was the host of several televised Beckett discussions this week.
Beckett, like punk musicians and any bona fide rebel, rejected the cult of celebrity that sprang up around him, Mr. Kelly said. Even supposedly difficult works like "Godot," he said, appeal to today's bored teenagers, who, like the tramps in the play, hang around "waiting for life to arrive."
That perspective, and the festival, are bringing Beckett's bleak worldview and his wicked sense of humor to new audiences.
"There is the idea that he's not that easy to read or to watch, and I think that is being chiseled away," said Conor Lovett, a Paris-based Irish actor who has been performing Beckett monologues for two decades. During the festival he was on daily radio broadcasts, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and in a performance space in the bustling financial services district here. He says he is playing to progressively younger crowds.
The festival also includes 10 exhibitions and several concerts of work that inspired, and was inspired by, Beckett's writing, including a string quartet by Morton Feldman and videos by Bruce Nauman.
"He'd hate to hear me say this, but he is almost festival-friendly," said Michael Colgan, chairman of the centenary festival and director of the Gate Theater, which is staging "Eh Joe" and nine other plays. "The shadow that he cast is quite a long shadow."
Beckett's minimalist aesthetic also makes stage managers' jobs easier and allows festival planners to schedule several of his short plays in quick succession. Props, if any, are rarely more complicated than a carrot and a piece of rope. Sets are spartan.
Mr. Kelly, the disc jockey, said he worried that Beckett's reputation might continue to overshadow his work, and that his iconic image would soon appear on T-shirts.
"I'm slightly cautious of the man being commodified," he said. "It's sort of like jazz: it's a shorthand for mood and feeling, and sophistication, even if you don't listen to it."
Similar concerns about posthumously exploiting writers for commercial ends arose during the James Joyce festival in Ireland in 2004. John O'Donoghue, the government's arts minister, tried to dispel those fears in an interview. "It's about celebrating their achievements and making sure their legacies are secure," he said. The government will spend at least one million euros producing the Beckett festival, he said.
But Mr. O'Donoghue also acknowledged that major arts festivals helped in "differentiating Ireland as a destination" for tourists.
"The genius of Beckett is his capacity to convey a complexity of thought, in accessible language," Mr. O'Donoghue said. "You don't just view Beckett. You listen to the language, and there's a beautiful musicality to that language."
There is no denying that the Irish, and their government, appreciate writers and artists more now than in the past, and support them with tax breaks and generous public financing. A generation ago, when appreciation was virtually nonexistent, the government banned books, and writers felt obliged to emigrate. Beckett moved to Paris in 1937, rarely came back to Ireland, and wrote much of his greatest work in French.
Theatergoers have laughed about how the famously reclusive author would have reacted to the sprawling festival, which by some counts is the sixth major posthumous celebration of his work.
"He wouldn't have turned up at a single event, and he couldn't have borne the hoopla element," said Mr. Colgan, who knew Beckett for the last three years of his life. "He would have been in pain at any of the launches that I did." But if he could have observed from a safe distance?
"He would have loved it," Mr. Colgan said.
My favourite Beckett work is Krapp's Last Tape, one of his more straight forward pieces, which I saw John Hurt performing here in Dublin in 1999.
I have memories of the making of a recent film of Waiting For Godot. It's director , Michael Lindsay-Hogg ( Let It Be , Brideshead Revisited etc.) lived , at the time , around the corner from my shop . Michael would regale us with details of the filming, done primarily in a disused creamery in Co. Monaghan in November '00. The tiny budget allowed for something like a week of filming . Nearly all the dialogue had to be overdubbed later because of the sound of non-stop rain hitting the roof. The local roads were only exceeded in their direness by the locals driving ability. And as for the food! MLH had to suffer for his art etc.
The film's 'Premiere', on a Sunday evening in the Irish Film Centre the following Feb. , was equally low-budget. I was chatting, in the foyer, with Michael before the showing. His partner Lisa appeared at his side ; she needed change to get a coffee. It was all so amusing . Here was the film's director , just before the premiere , having to rummage in his pockets for coins.
I think Sam would have liked it !
And that's enough name dropping for the moment..........
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Kelly , Elvis' buddy in Irish radio , is featured in this ; small world etc..
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/theat ... ei=5087%0A
April 15, 2006
Beckett, Master of the Bleak, Gets a Birthday Bash in Dublin
By BRIAN LAVERY
DUBLIN, April 12 — In the surprise hit show of Ireland's monthlong festival celebrating Samuel Beckett, who was born on April 13 100 years ago, the star actor does not say a word: Sir Michael Gambon sits on a bed and listens to a disembodied recorded woman's voice for about 30 minutes.
Enthusiastic audiences, mesmerized by the subtle reactions of Sir Michael's weathered features, have been snapping up tickets at prices that average out at a dollar a minute.
The popularity of "Eh Joe," a relatively unknown 1965 script that Beckett wrote for television, has been one of many pleasant revelations during a month in his native city when Beckett is, quite simply, inescapable.
Like the face of Big Brother, Beckett's hawklike visage glares down from banners fluttering alongside the River Liffey and over cobblestone streets in the Temple Bar cultural district here. National radio and television stations broadcast his plays daily. A weeklong academic symposium drew crowds to Trinity College. The American artist Jenny Holzer projected quotations from Beckett's work onto Dublin landmarks, shining them with powerful lights onto the sides of the buildings.
The presence of the rock star Bono at the opening event of the festival, where he read one of his own Beckett-style poems, helped propel the festival onto newspaper front pages and into the national consciousness. Seventeen years after his death, and almost 60 years after he redefined modern drama with "Waiting for Godot," Beckett is undeniably en vogue.
"As a role model, he's as hip and cool as can possibly be," said John Kelly, a radio disc jockey who was the host of several televised Beckett discussions this week.
Beckett, like punk musicians and any bona fide rebel, rejected the cult of celebrity that sprang up around him, Mr. Kelly said. Even supposedly difficult works like "Godot," he said, appeal to today's bored teenagers, who, like the tramps in the play, hang around "waiting for life to arrive."
That perspective, and the festival, are bringing Beckett's bleak worldview and his wicked sense of humor to new audiences.
"There is the idea that he's not that easy to read or to watch, and I think that is being chiseled away," said Conor Lovett, a Paris-based Irish actor who has been performing Beckett monologues for two decades. During the festival he was on daily radio broadcasts, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and in a performance space in the bustling financial services district here. He says he is playing to progressively younger crowds.
The festival also includes 10 exhibitions and several concerts of work that inspired, and was inspired by, Beckett's writing, including a string quartet by Morton Feldman and videos by Bruce Nauman.
"He'd hate to hear me say this, but he is almost festival-friendly," said Michael Colgan, chairman of the centenary festival and director of the Gate Theater, which is staging "Eh Joe" and nine other plays. "The shadow that he cast is quite a long shadow."
Beckett's minimalist aesthetic also makes stage managers' jobs easier and allows festival planners to schedule several of his short plays in quick succession. Props, if any, are rarely more complicated than a carrot and a piece of rope. Sets are spartan.
Mr. Kelly, the disc jockey, said he worried that Beckett's reputation might continue to overshadow his work, and that his iconic image would soon appear on T-shirts.
"I'm slightly cautious of the man being commodified," he said. "It's sort of like jazz: it's a shorthand for mood and feeling, and sophistication, even if you don't listen to it."
Similar concerns about posthumously exploiting writers for commercial ends arose during the James Joyce festival in Ireland in 2004. John O'Donoghue, the government's arts minister, tried to dispel those fears in an interview. "It's about celebrating their achievements and making sure their legacies are secure," he said. The government will spend at least one million euros producing the Beckett festival, he said.
But Mr. O'Donoghue also acknowledged that major arts festivals helped in "differentiating Ireland as a destination" for tourists.
"The genius of Beckett is his capacity to convey a complexity of thought, in accessible language," Mr. O'Donoghue said. "You don't just view Beckett. You listen to the language, and there's a beautiful musicality to that language."
There is no denying that the Irish, and their government, appreciate writers and artists more now than in the past, and support them with tax breaks and generous public financing. A generation ago, when appreciation was virtually nonexistent, the government banned books, and writers felt obliged to emigrate. Beckett moved to Paris in 1937, rarely came back to Ireland, and wrote much of his greatest work in French.
Theatergoers have laughed about how the famously reclusive author would have reacted to the sprawling festival, which by some counts is the sixth major posthumous celebration of his work.
"He wouldn't have turned up at a single event, and he couldn't have borne the hoopla element," said Mr. Colgan, who knew Beckett for the last three years of his life. "He would have been in pain at any of the launches that I did." But if he could have observed from a safe distance?
"He would have loved it," Mr. Colgan said.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Nice story, John. I was in awe of a Swiss woman I met last year who in the 70s had come across Beckett and Patrick Magee in a pub near the Royal Court, where they were preparing a new play. She happened to be reading a book on Irish theatre and got them both to sign it. I saw the signature - most exciting. Beckett didn't want to talk further, but Patrick Magee indulged her in conversatiion for ages.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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King Hoarse
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I've sent letters with Beckett stamps to at least two members of this board. I'd buy a t-shirt if I saw one.johnfoyle wrote:Mr. Kelly, the disc jockey, said he worried that Beckett's reputation might continue to overshadow his work, and that his iconic image would soon appear on T-shirts.
What this world needs is more silly men.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Who Shot Sam?
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My favorite Beckett play is "Endgame", though I read it in French as "Fin de partie". "Malone Dies" is good stuff too. Took a great course on Beckett at NYU with Thomas Bishop, who knew Beckett personally and worked with him on several productions. I remember watching a '50s television production of "Godot" with (believe it or not) Zero Mostel and Burgess Meredith, that was really outstanding.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
I know this is kind of a "This one time, at Band Camp..." thing but this one time at my theatre department, I dove into our dumpster as part of my interpretation of Endgame and I landed on a bunch of sharp, splintery two by fours that had been thrown out earlier that day. Boy was my face red. And my hands, shirt, back and legs.
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King Hoarse
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Otis Westinghouse
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I wanted to read Waiting For Godot and so I bought I Can't Go On, I'll Go On - A Samuel Beckett Reader. Included are his short stories, poetry, and dramatics works. The excerpts from Watt and Murphy are very humorous in that dark humor way.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think that you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt
- M. Twain
- M. Twain
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miss buenos aires
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Who Shot Sam?
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8 of 10 correct. Dumb luck!miss buenos aires wrote:http://arts.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questio ... 6,00.html?
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
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Otis Westinghouse
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"You scored 10 out of a possible 10
VLADIMIR:
That passed the time.
ESTRAGON:
It would have passed in any case.
VLADIMIR:
Yes, but not so rapidly.
IWaiting for Godot)
Well done: you clearly know your Beckett, well enough to know how meaningless such achievements are"
Well I did a lot better than in the EC lyrics quiz! I'd forgotten about Eisenstein, but Oh Calcutta came back to me! I read the excellent Deirdre Bair biog as a student, but want to get this, which is meant to be the dog's definitive bollocks:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 93-3351915
VLADIMIR:
That passed the time.
ESTRAGON:
It would have passed in any case.
VLADIMIR:
Yes, but not so rapidly.
IWaiting for Godot)
Well done: you clearly know your Beckett, well enough to know how meaningless such achievements are"
Well I did a lot better than in the EC lyrics quiz! I'd forgotten about Eisenstein, but Oh Calcutta came back to me! I read the excellent Deirdre Bair biog as a student, but want to get this, which is meant to be the dog's definitive bollocks:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 93-3351915
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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Who Shot Sam?
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Otis Westinghouse
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Who Shot Sam?
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Last night, I went to The Gate Theatre of Ireland's production of Waiting For Godot. It was very, very good. Johnny Murphy and Barry McGovern were great as Estragon and Vladimir. Now that I've seen the play I should go back and read it again.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think that you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt
- M. Twain
- M. Twain
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Otis Westinghouse
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