It's Samuel Beckett's centenary and seeing he's my favourite playwright (in fact, the only playwright I like) and I've never seen any of his plays, I feel like I should book up.
I don't like the theatre, it's so clunky when you compare it with the miracle and myriad possibilities of film. (Quite literally sometimes. We saw an outdoor production of The Tempest in Wales, with very chunky adolescent girls playing the fairies. Thunk! Thunk! when they leapt about the place. Shakespeare, great on the page, lost me on the stage.) Theatre's what we made do with until we invented celluloid, I reckon.
Beckett's all different, he never pretends that it isn't totally artificial and staged, so you can go along with it. At least, I'm hoping.
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Hear, hear!! I detest the theatre, I hate hearing the shuffling around on the stage too and the actual swallowing, it completely shatters the belief you need to suspend to truely get involved in a story. I agree with you about film, especially in the cinema and like things on the radio, or in print where you imagine the characters/places yourself. I find the theatre faintly embarassing. Having said that, I did see "Waiting for Godot" and enjoyed it, so go for Becket and leave it there!!
I've seen some "raw" and "rootsy" plays in Jamaica, I wouldn't call them 'intellectual', but they sure were good. There was this 'electricity' between players and actors that made it zing.
Em, I knew you'd be the voice of reason. And if you say you like it, I'll definitely go.
GG - see, I love live music & dance, I can get the electricity there, but it doesn't work for me in the theatre. (Except when I'm on the stage.)
Hi Earl. I really really like Beckett. Sure it doesn't make sense if you look at it as a naturalistic representation, but I like the way he strips things down. It's funny, painful, baffling, uncertain... kind of like real life. He has a history with prisoners too you know - check this out: http://samuel-beckett.net/Samuel_Beckett.html
(scroll down to October 3, 1954)
By the way, your blog is fascinating. Is it for real..?
I saw a production of Waiting for Godot, featuring Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson. That was *ages* ago.
I studied Beckett on my French course (under the subject "The theatre of the absurd") - Beckett wrote some plays in French, bizarrely.
I kind of "get" what he's doing, but I agree that theatre is a bit odd
Hi Anxious. Intriguing casting! He did write in French - in fact, I think Waiting for Godot was written first in French then translated into English. Clever old Beckett...
G - I was going to post a picture but Blogger pictures not working, bah. I keep telling her, does she listen to me?
Earl - only if she says so.
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