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11 - Beckett as director

the art of mastering failure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

By
Anna McMullan
Edited by
John Pilling
John Pilling
Affiliation:
University of Reading
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Summary

Samuel Beckett's resistance to productions of his plays which depart from the precise stage directions indicated in the texts has attracted public and critical attention through a number of legal disputes between Beckett and a director or company who has flouted the author's directions. The best documented of these is Jo Anne Akalaitis' production of Endgame in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1984, for the American Repertory Theater. The dispute was settled out of court, but both sides presented their case in statements to the audience. Robert Brustein of the American Repertory Theatre argued that

Like all works of theatre, productions of Endgame depend upon the collective contributions of directors, actors, and designers to realize them effectively, and normal rights of interpretation are essential in order to free the full energy and meaning of the play […] Mr Beckett’s agents do no service either to theatrical art or to the great artist they represent by pursuing such rigorous controls.

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Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Beckett , pp. 196 - 208
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1994

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