Was wo : TV project, May 85

BC MS 3097/2

1985

Samuel Beckett was born in Foxrock, County Dublin on Good Friday, 13 April 1906. Although throughout his life he had the reputation of being sombre, mysterious and reclusive, this popular myth hid a very private, yet immensely generous, gracious and caring person. On entering Trinity College, Dublin, Beckett developed his interest in art, music and literature. He was a gifted linguist who also enjoyed vaudeville theatre and the films of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers. An academic career seemed to be the obvious option on graduating but, after spells teaching in Paris and Dublin, Beckett realised he was more suited to the artistic lifestyle he had encountered in Paris in the company of James Joyce. Having witnessed the intolerance of the Nazi regime towards writers and artists in Germany in 1936, Beckett famously decided that he preferred France at war to Ireland in peace, opting to live in France for the rest of his life. However, this bold decision was more than a mere gesture. Beckett was forced to spend much of the war on the run from the Nazis in the South of France working with the French Resistance, for which he was later awarded the Croix de Guerre. The end of the war marked a burst of literary activity for Beckett, who began writing, in French, a dense prose trilogy comprising Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable. As a relaxation from this project, between October 1948 and January 1949, Beckett worked on a play entitled En attendant Godot - the work which brought him international fame and recognition and which redefined modern theatre. Further literary success ensued, culminating in him being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. As the years progressed, Beckett's prose and drama decreased in length, as he found increasingly successful ways to express the inexpressible. Yet throughout his career, he remained a bilingual author, creating French and English versions of almost all his work. During the 1970s Beckett directed his major stage plays in Berlin in German, exhibiting another side of his character. His success in this field led him to direct his own plays created specifically for television - a medium which seemed perfect for the stark, imposing images of these later, minimalist pieces. Samuel Beckett died on 22 December 1989 and was buried in a private ceremony in the Cimetière de Montparnasse in Paris.

Holograph with handwritten alterations by the author.Notes written on squared paper torn from a small notebook.Notes and diagrams written by Beckett in English in preparation for his German production of Quoi où (Was wo) at the Süddeutscher Rundfunk in Stuttgart.Verso of second leaf contains cast list.Former reference number: BECKETT COLLECTION--MSS DRAMA/QUO 03Original manuscript production notes by Samuel Beckett for the television adaptation of Was wo. 6 leaves torn out of a squared paper notebook. 14 x 9 cm. Dated on the first page May 1985. Written in three types of black ink. These notes were made by Beckett prior to and during production, which, according to the note on p.2, took place in Stuttgart between 18 and 28 June 1985. They constitute a full record of Beckett’s experience as a Director of the ‘SDR’ television version of Was wo. In this production Beckett opts to use only faces. Notes on the first page include ‘Bodies and movement eliminated. Faces only’. When Beckett lists the participants, he capitalised the vowel in each name, thus: BAm, BEm, BIm, BOm. (Beckett remarked that the difference in the vowel sounds is the most important aspect of these names). Each player is attributed a colour: black, white, red, and blue respectively. In the published stage directions, Beckett rejects colour, specifying the players all having ‘Same long grey gown. Same long grey hair’. The exits and entrances are denoted by fade-outs and fade-ups. In this sequence of notes, Beckett tries and rejects many approaches to the production, with and without a full view of the players’ bodies, before settling on the ‘faces only’ technique. There are several technical notes. Beckett also lists a nine-point colour sequence, and notes that, while the light on the players’ faces should be coloured and clear, on ‘S’ there should be ‘Dim light; face blurred’. The indication of colour differentiation establishes a link with Beckett’s Quad, also produced in Stuttgart and directed by Beckett for SDR, in 1982. Item in brown envelope, addressed in Beckett’s hand, to Professor James Knowlson, and postmarked Paros, 9 July 1985.

6 leaves ; 14 cm.

English

file

Samuel Barclay Beckett, 1906-1989, Süddeutscher Rundfunk

Quoi où, Dramatic production

The copying of any of Beckett’s handwriting and sketches, or any unpublished letters, typescripts, manuscripts or draft versions of his work that differ from the final published version is not permitted.

704