Staging Beckett in Great Britain

David Tucker, Trish McTighe, David Tucker, Trish McTighe

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781474240161
• eBook ISBN:
  9781474240192
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism in Drama

Beckett's relationship with British theatre is complex and underexplored, yet his impact has been immense. Uniquely placing performance history at the centre of its analysis, this volume examines Samuel Beckett's drama as it has been staged in Great Britain, bringing to light a wide range of untold histories and in turn illuminating six decades of drama in Britain.

Ranging from studies of the first English tour of Waiting for Godot in 1955 to Talawa's 2012 all-black co-production of the same play, Staging Samuel Beckett in Great Britain excavates a host of archival resources in order to historicize how Beckett's drama has interacted with specific theatres, directors and theatre cultures in the UK. It traces production histories of plays such as Krapp's Last Tape; presents Beckett's working relationships with the Royal Court, Riverside and West Yorkshire Playhouse, as well as with directors such as Peter Hall; looks at the history of Beckett's drama in Scotland and how the plays have been staged in London's West End. Production analyses are mapped onto political, economic and cultural contexts of Great Britain so that Beckett's drama resonates in new ways, through theatre practice, against the complex contexts of Great Britain's regions.

With contributions from experts in the fields of both Beckett studies and UK drama, including S.E. Gontarski, David Pattie, Mark Taylor-Batty and Sos Eltis, the volume offers an exceptional and unique understanding of Beckett's reception on the UK stage and the impact of his drama within UK theatre practices. Together with its sister volume, Staging Samuel Beckett in Ireland and Northern Ireland it will prove a terrific resource for students, scholars and theatre practitioners.

Table of contents

• FC
• Half title
• Related titles from Bloomsbury Methuen Drama:
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• Foreword James Knowlson
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction David Tucker
• Part 1 Origins, Theatres, Directors
• 1 The Arrival of Godot: Beckett, Cultural Memory and 1950s British Theatre David Pattie
• 2 ‘I think this does call for a firm stand’: Beckett at the Royal Court S. E. Gontarski
• 3 Feckham, Peckham, Fulham, Clapham … Hammersmith: Beckett at Riverside Studios Matthew McFrederick
• 4 Beckett at the West Yorkshire Playhouse: Happy Days, Not I and Krapp’s Last Tape (1993) Mark Taylor Batty
• 5 ‘A price to be paid’: West End Beckett John Stokes
• 6 ‘It’s all symbiosis’: Peter Hall Directing Beckett Sos Eltis
• Part 2 Productions, Locations, Legacies
• 7 Krapp’s Last Tape in Great Britain: Production History amid Changing Practice Andrew Head
• 8 ‘An Unforgettable Image’: Staging Beckett’s Short Plays Derval Tubridy
• 9 ‘The tree has four or five leaves’: Talawa, Britishness and the First all-Black Production of Waiting for Godot in Britain Kene Igweonu
• 10 Mindscapes Among Thistle: Producing Samuel Beckett’s Plays in Scotland Ksenija Horvat
• 11 Contracts, Clauses and Nudes: Breath, Oh! Calcutta! and the Freedom of Authorship Graham Saunders
• 12 ‘That first last look in the shadows’: Beckett’s Legacies for Harold Pinter David Tucker
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index