‘Meditations’ on Loss: Beyond Discourses of Pain and Torture in the Work of the Beckett Actor

Some Beckett scholars have argued that it is necessary for actors performing Beckett to suffer, i.e. to literally experience physical/psychic ‘pain’. This essay argues against this view, and calls for a much more balanced view of the actor’s work on Beckett’s later, shorter plays. Taking into consid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Contemporary theatre review 2018-01, Vol.28 (1), p.95-113
Main Author: Zarrilli, Phillip
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acting
Actors
Beckett, Samuel (1906-1989)
British & Irish literature
Meditation
Pain
Suffering
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Some Beckett scholars have argued that it is necessary for actors performing Beckett to suffer, i.e. to literally experience physical/psychic ‘pain’. This essay argues against this view, and calls for a much more balanced view of the actor’s work on Beckett’s later, shorter plays. Taking into consideration the professional actor’s work, the essay addresses how we might better understand, contextualize, and articulate the constraints as well as the affordances that acting Beckett’s plays offer, ensuring we do not overly emphasize or fetishize ‘pain’ or the ‘terror’ actors can experience when performing Beckett. The essay argues that acting in Beckett’s later plays should consider the positive affordances offered by Beckett’s plays, especially considering the tremendous compassion that informs Beckett’s body of work. The essay concludes with a personal reflection on how some of Beckett’s later plays afford opportunities for the actor performing these plays to embody and experience Beckett’swords as a form of ‘meditation’ on loss, and through that process of embodied meditation to find comfort.
ISSN:1048-6801
1477-2264
DOI:10.1080/10486801.2017.1405949