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| Portrait by Reginald Gray, Paris, 1961. |
Having been invited to think about directing a show and with a blank canvas for Arka I have been deliberating what I might do. I've been in discussions with two young actors, one about to graduate from theatre school here and one working extensively in theatre and tv in Poland. I have been revisiting Molly Bloom from James Joyce's Ulysses - and am looking at two versions for the Solo performance season. Joyce always implicates Samuel Beckett too - the most significant writers to grace the world stage in the last decades of the 20th century. I studied Beckett extensively when I was a student and I find my way back to him often - through his plays and his novels. I'm thinking about directing one of his plays for Arka. There is a certain quality to the work that Renata produces for her company, largely because she has brought together an ensemble of differently abled actors - and her casting is inspired so that the actor in all his glory and difference is revealed through the character he/she takes on. Her Macbeth is genius in this respect among others.
Our own Graeae Theatre has been producing outstanding work in this arena for over two decades and I am looking forward to linking them and Chickenshed Theatre when Arka come over in the summer for their Edinburgh and Barking stint!
Waiting for Godot is obviously Beckett's most famous and most produced play - and its an excellent entry point for people who are unfamiliar with his dark, post modern existential work. For actors its a great vehicle, demanding less rather than more and by definition access to the bare rawness of a world without God or hope. For an actor used to donning a character on top of themselves, Godot demands a peeling back of personal narrative and an engagement with the darkness of human absurdity.
Beckett was influenced hugely by Joyce but in his view lived the early years of his career in the shadow of the iconic writer. In 1945, Beckett returned to Dublin for a brief visit. During his stay, he had a revelation in his mother’s room: his entire future direction in literature appeared to him. He was consumed with a feeling that he would remain forever in the shadow of Joyce and certain to never beat him at his own game. His revelation prompted him to change direction and to acknowledge both his own stupidity and his interest in ignorance and impotence:
"I realized that Joyce had gone as far as one could in the direction of knowing more, [being] in control of one’s material. He was always adding to it; you only have to look at his proofs to see that. I realised that my own way was in impoverishment, in lack of knowledge and in taking away, in subtracting rather than in adding."
Knowlson argues that "Beckett was rejecting the Joycean principle that knowing
more was a way of creatively understanding the world and controlling it ... In future, his work would focus on poverty, failure, exile and loss – as he put it, on man as a 'non-knower' and as a 'non-can-er.' The revelation "has rightly been regarded as a pivotal moment in his entire career." Beckett fictionalised the experience in his play Krapp's Last Tape (1958). While listening to a tape he made earlier in his life, Krapp hears his younger self say "clear to me at last that the dark I have always struggled to keep under is in reality my most...", at which point Krapp fast-forwards the tape (before the audience can hear the complete revelation). Beckett later explained to Knowlson that the missing words on the tape are "precious ally".
Have a good day all.
more was a way of creatively understanding the world and controlling it ... In future, his work would focus on poverty, failure, exile and loss – as he put it, on man as a 'non-knower' and as a 'non-can-er.' The revelation "has rightly been regarded as a pivotal moment in his entire career." Beckett fictionalised the experience in his play Krapp's Last Tape (1958). While listening to a tape he made earlier in his life, Krapp hears his younger self say "clear to me at last that the dark I have always struggled to keep under is in reality my most...", at which point Krapp fast-forwards the tape (before the audience can hear the complete revelation). Beckett later explained to Knowlson that the missing words on the tape are "precious ally".
Its magnificent. The existential darkness that from time to time we all battle to keep at bay and which is so often pathologised - call it depression, hopelessness, diffidence. This is indeed for Beckett the very source of his creative genius. In a much-quoted article, the critic vivian Mercier wrote that Beckett "has achieved a theoretical impossibility - a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice".
I am seriously inclined to have a go at Godot. It will be the most challenging thing for me to attempt and in Polish! But maybe that too will be of benefit because I will be keenly immersed in a language that I don't understand, so will be left to meander through the tones, colours and images of sound, metaphor and feeling. Mmm- more, much more to think about. I will be in touch with Arka through Maciej later this week. Should be interesting - and I am also interested in thinking about how this piece might work here in Barking - given the burgeoning Polish diaspora and their existential migration experiences.
Have a good day all.
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