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Beckett in Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival Revival of Three One-Act Plays, “Not I,” “Footfalls,” and “Rockaby,” by Samuel Beckett

2014; University of Tulsa; Volume: 52; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/jjq.2014.0054

1938-6036

Richard J. Gerber,

Poetry Analysis and Criticism

Reviewed by: Beckett in Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival Revival of Three One-Act Plays, “Not I,” “Footfalls,” and “Rockaby,” by Samuel Beckett Richard J. Gerber (bio) BECKETT IN BROOKLYN: THE BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC’S NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL REVIVAL OF THREE ONE-ACT PLAYS, “NOT I,” “FOOTFALLS,” AND “ROCKABY”by Samuel Beckett, Harvey Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, New York, 7-1210 2014, performed by Lisa Dwan, directed by Walter Asmus. It is an inherent bias of some Joyceans constantly to view Samuel Beckett in relation to Joyce. Aside from his important role as friend, amanuensis, and chief conspirator in the Our Exagminationproject and sometime paramour manqué to Joyce’s daughter Lucia, Beckett’s [End Page 233]writing style is often contrasted with that of Joyce, particularly in their later works when Beckett tends toward minimalism while Joyce leans toward the maximum. 1It turns out that the frequently repeated observation—upon realizing he could not compete with “The Master” in literature, Beckett went the other way in drama—has a certain truth to it, as will be shown. But it remains challenging for some of us to find more than post-Joycean echoes in some of Beckett’s work. For instance, take Not I, an iconic playlet that opened the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s (BAM) 2014 Next Wave revival of three one-woman performances written by Beckett that deal with the enigmas of life and death in a grand total of fifty-five minutes. 2 Not Ihad its world premiere at New York’s Lincoln Center in 1972, taking twelve minutes to perform; the current production runs nine minutes, with the “stream-of-consciousness spoken, as Beckett directed, at the speed of thought,” according to the playbill. Not Imay be described as words spat out by a spotlighted disembodied mouth that appears to float eight feet above an otherwise pitch-black stage. In 2008, BAM mounted a fine revival of Beckett’s Happy Days: A Play in Two Acts, featuring an actor speaking while buried up to her waist in Act 1, then up to her neck in Act 2. 3So the suspended talking mouth in Not I, suffering from logorrhea after a lifetime of speechlessness, seems a logical progression. The mechanics of the visual spectacle that is Not I—a show that might best be characterized as “performance art”—require some explanation before its content can be considered. Prior to the curtain’s rise, Lisa Dwan, the actor who has been performing Not Isince 2005 (can you imagine?), applies black face and is blindfolded and black-hooded so that no sight nor sound can intrude. She is then strapped into an elevated harness and supportive armature contraption behind a black screen, in order that she not move (other than her mouth) during the show; all that is seen by the audience is her mouth. For the viewer of this play, Mouth (as she is familiarly known) appears as little more than a speck of light (even from the fourth row), except when wide open, as when laughing or screaming, with accompanying expectorations. Indistinct words are heard before Mouth can be seen at the beginning of this play, and after the spotlight goes out at the end. In between these times, Mouth’s speech, at top speed, is mostly (and purposely, per script notes) unintelligible (aside from the laughter and screeching), although the repeated “No! … She!” stands out, marking the first-person singular defiance of Not Iand suggesting verbal possession of Mouth by someone other than “I.” Be that as it may, reading the ten-page script of this play—consisting of blocks of one to (at most) six or seven words strung together and separated [End Page 234]by ellipses—conveys the story of a life of suffering, beginning with an April birth (Beckett was born 13 April 1906) and a trailing off at the end. An unedited, selected sample from the mid-section of Not Iappears thus: … yes … all the time the buzzing … so-called … all that together … imagine! … whole body like gone … just the mouth … lips … cheeks … jaws … never- … what...