In today’s Wall Street Journal I review the Irish Rep’s webcast revival of Bill Irwin’s On Beckett/In Screen. Here’s an excerpt.
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It’s a puzzle to me why we have yet to see a webcast of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” Not only is it a small-cast play with a simple set, but the theme of “Godot” would seem to be ideally suited to the moment. How should we live at a time when we are all facing the ever-present possibility of disease and death? The miracle of Beckett’s masterpiece is that it uses pulverizingly funny baggy-pants comedy to ask this soul-searching question. I don’t know another play that has the potential to speak so powerfully and directly to a world grappling with a deadly pandemic.
Absent a virtual revival of “Godot,” Bill Irwin has given us the next best thing: He’s collaborated with New York’s Irish Repertory Theatre on a one-man webcast version of “On Beckett,” his 2018 play, which he calls “an exploration of the works of Samuel Beckett.” If—like many people—you’re put off by Beckett’s reputation for being, in Mr. Irwin’s words, a “famously difficult writer,” “On Beckett” is the best possible way to overcome that obstacle. Mr. Irwin’s manner is engaging and unpretentious, and even when he’s untying a particularly knotty passage, he talks about it in a way that is at all times wholly accessible. Should you already know Beckett’s work well, you will still find “On Beckett/In Screen,” as this version is called, to be a delight to watch….
“I don’t know how a man can describe his wife to somebody else unless he dislikes her—there is nothing like dislike to make a character appear vivid—but the very things in a woman that make a man love her escape language. Women seem able to recognize with perfect candor the flaws in the men they love. Men lack this ability.”
“What baffles me is the comfort people find in the idea that somebody dealt this mess. Blind and meaningless chance seems to me so much more congenial—or at least less horrible. Prove to me that there is a God and I will really begin to despair.”
A new episode of Three on the Aisle, the podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for listening or downloading.
Here’s American Theatre’s “official” summary of the proceedings:
This week the critics talk about creating a government post for arts and culture and who might fill such a position. They also touch on what the Biden Administration might mean for the theatre. Terry shares his thoughts on comedy without live laughter, and Elisabeth and Peter discuss some interactive game-style shows on Zoom and the video platform Shindig. Their picks this week include Ready Made Cabaret 2.0 by This Is Not A Theatre Company, the Geffen Playhouse’s Inside the Box, and the Irish Rep’s A Touch of the Poet.
To listen to or download this episode, read more about it, or subscribe to Three on the Aisle, go here.
In case you’ve missed any previous episodes, you’ll find them all here.
