Holly Williams surveys actors' responses to some of Beckett's most difficult roles
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| Ian McKellen stars as Estragon (Gogo) in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot |
Samuel Beckett liked his actors to be up to their necks in it. In Happy Days, the protagonist’s head pokes out of a mound of earth; in Play, characters are incarcerated in urns; in Endgame, it’s dustbins. Sometimes he gets rid of their necks altogether: the actress in Not I must have her head strapped down, her body clamped still, so just her mouth can be lit. Demanding? Not half – and not just physically. Beckett’s bleak (if also blackly comic) texts also require actors to give up their innermost self; his favourite direction was “don’t act”. [Read More]
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