Tuesday's Overlooked A/V: Beckett's Film

Beckett is funny: people seem to often overlook that fact. Productions of Waiting for Godot that get that fact tend to be much better than those with dour seriousness. You put his craggy mug up there and suddenly it's art with a capital Arrrr! Slapstick is a fundamental element of his work however, so no surprise that he worshipped Buster Keaton. Yes, Keaton by 1965 suffered the effects of his dissolution, but it suits the haggard bemusement of his character in this short film. Beckett himself referred to Film as "an interesting failure"; considering how many dull successes fill the theatres at present, that seems infinitely preferable.



Even newly anointed big-stuff-with-a-show-at-the-Tate-Mod Damien Hirst has done Beckett.

As always, check Sweet Freedom for the round up of other gems. If you watch this on t'Tube you'll see a bunch of other videos featuring both Beckett and Keaton; indulge yourself. Another great resource for arty indulgences, if you don't already know about it, is UbuWeb.

London Update

Well, I have been a poor correspondent, no doubt -- on the plus side, it's because I'm having too good a time. For some alternate updates of a brief nature, check the Twitter stream in the right hand column of this blog, but even that only happens when I hit some free wifi as I'm out and about.

Godot was amazing; the Hamilton exhibit at the Serpentine yesterday, very chilly day for Hyde Park -- too cold to be tempted to see the MR James production in the tombs at St Pancras. Supposed to be warmer today -- off to see the JG Ballard-inspired exhibit at the Gagosian then there's the BBC Writers Room Q&A event.

Hope you're all well. Remembered to send a couple of postcards... :-D

NYC and Beckett

I headed down to the city on Saturday and the first stop was to have brunch with pal Dana from the Horror list. Dana joined the list when he was thirteen, so he made me feel ancient. Nonetheless we had a good time laughing and gossiping over our meal at Iguana. After our meal, I sauntered down to Studio 54 to see Beckett's Waiting for Godot. They still have the leopard skin carpet that Bianca and Andy waltzed down while on their way to groove the night away with their plastic bags.

It was a interesting production. The difficult things with stars is that it's hard to see them as anything but themselves. As good as Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane are, you can't really forget that they're who they are and not really Didi and Gogo, although I completely believed their adventures. The clowning aspects in particular came off well -- the hat sequence and the (apparently) fortuitous popping off of Lane's hat into Irwin's hands. Wonderful! Goodman, too, was wonderful, but you couldn't stop seeing him as Goodman.

Glover, however, made me forget who he was. He was Lucky. He took up this often stylized part and made it both shocking and real. I have a beef against Glover because I really didn't like his audio book version of The Thief of Always, but I suppose it's time to let that go and let him get beyond Lionel Luthor.

Walking toward Columbus Circle and Central Park, I saw this woman-positive advert and tried to take a picture of it to capture the Hooters restaurant in the background (that's the orange neon), but I don't think my phone was up to the complexity.

I hung out in Central Park and watched the people who crammed the park playing and relaxing, before heading back to Grand Central and the train via the cramped and sweaty subway. I got some lovely cards from Papyrus which I plan to use and enjoy, and drove back from Poughkeepsie listening to Robyn Hitchcock (yes, still!).

Waiting for Waiting for Godot

Just got tickets today for a version of Godot with some heavy hitters at The Roundabout Theatre's Studio 54:

Two-time Tony Award® winner Nathan Lane, Tony Award® winner Bill Irwin, Golden Globe® winner John Goodman and Tony Award® winner John Glover star in Samuel Beckett's cryptic and comical play, Waiting for Godot, directed by Tony Award® winner Anthony Page.

Should be fun! I love this play and that's quite a slate of actors to include. I recall one of my few great MLA memories being when I saw Irwin perform Stories and Texts for Nothing. Looking forward to this performance, for sure.