Any Beckett Fans?

BelacquaBo

Hello all! THis is my first thread post so I thought I might as well make it about my favourite author/playwright/critic etc. Samuel Beckett. I am currently writing my Masters thesis on his work but most of my friends/university peers find him are either not bothered or find him so incomprehensible (resistant to meaning I suppose) that trying to talk about Beckett's work (especially his earlier and later stuff) is painful at the best of times.

SO, with this dilemma in mind, I have escaped to the interwebs to find like-minded lovers of Beckett. Any takers?

chasmcb

I enjoy Beckett; have seen stagings of Endgame, Godot, Happy Days, Krapp's Last Tape, Conor Lovett doing various of the prose works, and I'm looking forward to seeing Barry McGovern do Watt at Galway Arts Fest in July. Have also read and enjoyed the main novels. Keep meaning to read John Calder's book on Beckett. What's the gist of your thesis?

BelacquaBo

My thesis is based on Beckett's middle to later dramatic works (Happy Days, Not I, THat Time etc.) sadly due to constraints on space I can't delve in to Beckett's prose which I stumbled upon and fell in love with during my undergrad. The topic of the thesis is phenomenology and Beckett (swaying into the great philosophical unknowns!) as this seems to be the current trend in Beckett criticism. My thesis will offer a critique of this type of reading but also analysis of the nature of empathy within Beckett's work (as a topic of phenomenological study itself).

Sadly, I have yet to see Happy days performed! I recently went to the Ethica show in Trinity showing Play, What Where, Come and Go and Catastrophe (it was brilliant I thoroughly recommend!) but have yet to find any company perfroming Happy Days. Where did you see Happy Days performed?

P.S I read Calder's latest book on Beckett when he came to our college but wasnt impressed at all, was quite disappointed in fact!

chasmcb

It was quite a few years ago I saw Happy Days; 1999, a touring production from Civic Theatre which came to Galway and featured Nuala Hayes and Mick Lally. There was an Argentine company who brought over a production of it a couple of years ago but I missed that one. Best of luck with the thesis!

Mardy Bum

BelacquaBo wrote: »

My thesis is based on Beckett's middle to later dramatic works (Happy Days, Not I, THat Time etc.) sadly due to constraints on space I can't delve in to Beckett's prose which I stumbled upon and fell in love with during my undergrad. The topic of the thesis is phenomenology and Beckett (swaying into the great philosophical unknowns!) as this seems to be the current trend in Beckett criticism. My thesis will offer a critique of this type of reading but also analysis of the nature of empathy within Beckett's work (as a topic of phenomenological study itself).

Sadly, I have yet to see Happy days performed! I recently went to the Ethica show in Trinity showing Play, What Where, Come and Go and Catastrophe (it was brilliant I thoroughly recommend!) but have yet to find any company perfroming Happy Days. Where did you see Happy Days performed?

P.S I read Calder's latest book on Beckett when he came to our college but wasnt impressed at all, was quite disappointed in fact!

Endgame and Godot are masterpieces which have influenced modern Irish theatre and philosophical thought hugely.

Beckett was a genius but by all reports not a very nice man to work with.

I also saw the Trinity productions they were excellent!

The Mad Hatter

Out of interest, have you seen his film Film, with Buster Keaton?

I'm not as familiar as I'd like to be with Beckett, both those stage works I do know - Godot, Krapp's Last Tape, and Not I in particular - I love. I don't think I've seen stagings of any of them, but I have radio productions of all the above, and I saw RTÉ's televised production of Krapp's Last Tape years ago.

chasmcb

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Beckett was a genius but by all reports not a very nice man to work with.

I don't know where you heard that, there are numerous stories of his kindness and generosity. The actor Barry McGovern, who met him several times has said of him that "he was a man of extraordinary integrity. He had a very gentle yet extraordinary presence. He wasn’t one for small talk but he had a wicked sense of humour when he got going."

valor

Dont know much about Samuel Beckett, but I love the fact that he used to drive Andre the Giant to school when he was a kid.

Kinski

BelacquaBo wrote: »

most of my friends/university peers find him are either not bothered or find him so incomprehensible (resistant to meaning I suppose) that trying to talk about Beckett's work (especially his earlier and later stuff) is painful at the best of times.

That's interesting; Beckett was very popular with my undergrad cohort, much more so than Joyce. Once I couldn't sleep before an exam and sat up watching the "Beckett On Film" production of Endgame at 4 in the morning. My college days were so crazy... :pac:

PurpleBee

Beckett is important to me too. No other writer possesses the power to disturb my assumptions and hypotheses as he does.

Harry Angstrom

I'm wondering if anyone has read Beckett's trilogy Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable and what you thought of them?

I bought them in a second-hand bookshop a few months back and I haven't read them yet but what I found funny was that somebody had written on the inside cover: "To Carol. Have limitless, scrumptious hours of toil and torment with these three".

ThirdMan

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

I'm wondering if anyone has read Beckett's trilogy Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable and what you thought of them?

I bought them in a second-hand bookshop a few months back and I haven't read them yet but what I found funny was that somebody had written on the inside cover: "To Carol. Have limitless, scrumptious hours of toil and torment with these three".

I made a stab at Molloy a few years back. I remember it being laugh out loud funny. It was the first time I had ever laughed like that while reading. But then it started to get tough; I think I was on page 15 of the same paragraph at one stage (no, really!). So I gave up on it. I picked up his compete dramatic works during the week, and I'm hoping that's a better introduction to his writing.

Queen-Mise

I like Beckett - studied him as part of an existentialist course.

I saw three of his plays, some of the odder ones. Have no idea of the name of them, they were excellent. The three plays were the one with the lips, the three people in hell in the urns & the homeless guy with the guy in the wheelchair

This was last year - and Beckett's manager or editor (someone who knew him well anyway professionally) was answering questions about him and his work. Some very funny stuff about Becket and the second play with its debut in Germany.

PurpleBee

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

I'm wondering if anyone has read Beckett's trilogy Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable and what you thought of them?

I bought them in a second-hand bookshop a few months back and I haven't read them yet but what I found funny was that somebody had written on the inside cover: "To Carol. Have limitless, scrumptious hours of toil and torment with these three".

I think the end of Malone Dies and the beginning of The Unnamable are just incredible pieces of writing. Don't read any of them alone on your back in dim light!

snooleen

I am a budding fan! I'm about to start my final year of a BA in English & Drama and I find Beckett incredibly intriguing. I have probably read about ten plays and seen zero in performance, apart from youtube clips.

I'm hoping to get up to the Beckett festival in Enniskillen in August, Robert Wilson's doing Krapp's Last Tape (one of my favourites, so far), and Pan Pan's production of All That Fall sounds amazing.

CdeP

snooleen wrote: »

I'm hoping to get up to the Beckett festival in Enniskillen in August, Robert Wilson's doing Krapp's Last Tape (one of my favourites, so far), and Pan Pan's production of All That Fall sounds amazing.

Attended, or rather experienced, All That Fall at the Project Arts Centre last year. Quite something. Be sure to check it out if you can!

wlzkelly

I listen to Beckett's plays for radio quite often. They are very interesting. He is my favorite playwright - a very intriguing character.