Klarinet Archive - Posting 000295.txt from 1996/04

From: Everett Austin <austine@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Beckett interpreters
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 01:52:50 -0400

I am not a Beckett scholar and have not taken the time to verify that
this is true for all his works, but in the case of most if not all of his
writings, he published both a French and an English version, usually the
French being the "original". I have most of his writings in French, but
confess not a one in English.

Everett Austin
Fairfax, California

On Wed, 10 Apr 1996, Steven A. Haaser wrote:

> Marie McDonough wrote:
> [...]
> >until he died, Samuel Beckett, the
> >author of "Waiting for Godot" and many other plays, went around the world,
> >observing rehearsals of his works and threatening lawsuits against directors
> who
> >deviated too far from what he perceived to be the *right* way to stage his
> >plays. Some creators would rather see their works die than see them
> transformed
> >in any significant way.
>
> This is an interesting case, since Beckett was so very insistent on
> adherence to his script and directions. I remember being told that Beckett
> chose to write several of his plays in French even though he was Irish
> because he felt he was less likely to write something in French which would
> be very subtle and fully understandable only to a native speaker as he could
> do, perhaps inadvertently, in English. He wanted everything perfectly clear
> (which perhaps my posting here isn't).
>
> Cheers,
> Steve
>

   
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