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Play
Chicago Reader, September 9,
1999
The Beckett Circle, Spring 2000, Volume 22
No. 1
Chicago Reader, September
9, 1999
Settle’s performers (A. Deacetis, M.
Rodgers, and K. Taber) speak their lines with the kind of
crisp, intelligent clarity that only actors who know and
love their Beckett can achieve. Even more delightful is how
gracefully they negotiate the play’s mood swings, winning
laughs one minute with the blackest of jokes, moving us the
next with the richness and perversity of Beckett’s
characters. The mischievous Irishman in him might also appreciate
a production that uses the conventional elements of a department-store
window–a start but engaging setting, people in otherworldly
poses, sound piped to the streets–to reincarnate his
austere work.
- Jack Helbig -
The Beckett Circle, Spring 2000, Volume
22 No. 1
In a heart-piercing moment, on of the two women
in Samuel beckett’s Play cries out, “Is anyone
listening? Can anyone hear us?” One dark Sunday evening
in Chicago this past fall, the answer was most emphatically
yes. Forty rapt listeners stood on the rain-spattered pavement
of Wicker Park as Play unfolded in the display window of
the Right On Futon Shop. The actors’ voices reached
the audience on the street through speakers attached to the
exterior of the building. This unusual production, part of
the Around-the-Coyote Festival, was produced by Thirteenth
Tribe Theatre Company and Right On Futon, September 9-12,
1999, and was directed by Joanna Settle who has also directed
Waiting for Godot at the Julliard School.
The locale–a shop window–might
seem controversial, especially in view of Beckett’s
objection to any modification of the setting of his plays,
most vigorously expressed in his suit to prevent Joanne Akalaitis
from setting Endgame in a subway station. However, Settle
and her set designer Mark Bello stayed very close to Beckett’s
stage directions. The window contained a gray cave-like background
with the actors performing in gray classical urns that came
up to their necks. The lighting supervisor Ruth Helms, used
a single light source “expressive of a single inquisitor” in
an effort to follow Beckett’s detailed instructions.
Play is one of Beckett’s many dramatic
experiments in physical immobility combined with virtuoso
verbal agility. Its success in production depends very much
on the ability of the actors to speak clearly and intelligibly
while making lightning-like shifts of mood and tone. The
Thirteenth Tribe company served Beckett well. Even with the
noise of city traffic, the actors’ words were clear
and spoken with riveting commitment. The casting, however,
did provide an unexpected twist. The program and all publicity
and press materials listed the performers as A. DeAcetis
(“W 2”), M. Rogers (“M”) and K. Taber
(W1”). At the 8:30 performance on Sunday, September
12, some audience members started to nudge each other as
they listened to Rogers. Something in the timbre of the voice
made at least a few spectators wonder, and indeed, the press
kit revealed that the first name of the only Rogers in the
company is “Megan.” At no time did the performance
give the slightest nod to its non-traditional casting, a
potentially more daring choice than the futon store window
venue itself. On the other hand, the physical identities
of the actors did not seem to matter that much in a play
where what counts above all is language.
The power of the production was undeniable.
Intensely interested audiences of forty to sixty people stood
on the sidewalk for the full forty minutes in chilly, wet
autumn weather. According to company member DeAcetis, attendance
was especially good at the midnight showings. Spectators
ranged from enthusiastic Beckettians eager to see the play
on stage to a group of curious young men in matching leather
jackets who kept nodding at each other and murmuring, “Weird” and “Cool.” Even
when the play was not in performance the name of Samuel Beckett
in bold black and white signage leapt out at the corner of
Division and Milwaukee, a solid working class neighborhood
now favored by emerging artists. There was no admission charge,
only a passed hat for this excellent production. this play
about death and loss truly came to life in this populist
setting.
- Eileen Seifert -
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