Beckett in Performance

Jonathan Kalb (Author)

9780521423793, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 5 September 1991

288 pages
22.7 x 15.1 x 1.7 cm, 0.43 kg

"In his close attention to production values and in his ability to move from specific performances to general ideas about the nature of theatre and of interpretation, Jonathan Kalb presents a much needed addition to Beckett criticism." Linda Ben-Zvi, Essays in Theatre

This book takes a critical look at the work of one of the twentieth-century's most influential playwrights from the viewpoint of those whose job it is to give the work life on the stage. From personal experience of over seventy productions, from interviews with numerous Beckett actors and directors, and in rare conversations with the playwright himself, Kalb addresses such fundamental questions as: is the task of performing Beckett categorically different from that of performing other forms of theatre? Is the audience's role different, and if so, how? The result is a new insight into particular problems of producing Beckett's early and late works, television plays, and prose works adapted for the stage. The book contains numerous performance photographs and an appendix of interviews with actors and directors involved in seminal Beckett productions.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
Part I. Acting: 2. Rockaby and the art of inadvertent interpretation
3. Considerations of acting in the early plays
4. Considerations of acting in the late plays
Part II. Directing: 5. Underground staging in perspective
6. Eh Joe, Dis Joe, He Joe: toward a television icon
7. The gamble of staging prose fiction
8. Conclusion: the question of context
Part III. Conservations: Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Theatre studies [AN]