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THE BECKETTIAN DIRECTOR
Abstract
In his book length essay L'homme revolte / The Rebel, Albert Camus describes the absurd man in terms of its major essential qualities: freedom, passion and revolt and identifies its three major prototypes: the Creator, Conqueror and Don Juan. All these qualities of the absurd man, outlined by the famous French writer and philosopher in his writings, are undoubtedly vivid descriptors of Samuel Beckett, in all his human and professional stances: as playwright (The Creator), director (The Conqueror) and complete artist (Don Juan). Moreover, any Beckettian character, actor or director fit the same mould, exhibiting the same features emphasized by Albert Camus in the essay mentioned above. Part of Samuel Beckett's importance as cultural personality in the history of theater is maybe the fact that he succeeds effortlessly to slowly fade into disappearance the clear delimitations between tradition and avant-garde. Being accepted almost immediately as a classic, he insidiously managed to insinuate progressive ideas in what one could call tradition and expanding, unknowingly and imperceptibly its boundaries. Conquerors of stages, the Beckettian directors are instrumental in the overall audience perception on these types of performance in the limelight, passionate masters of stages and unique magnifying lenses for the dramatic details encompassed into the written word, creatively free to share with the spectators their own subjective vision of the world. The present paper discovers, researches and explores the prototype of the Beckettian director, by offering an insight into the way in which Samuel Beckett himself staged his own plays. It also focuses on remembering famous directors of the time who the Irish playwright favored and entrusted his plays to, such as Roger Blin, Peter Hall, Alan Schneider, Donald McWhinnie and Deryk Mendel. Watching these magicians of the stage at work feels as if permanently returning to a departing point, turning round over and over again following the same patterns, drawn playfully by Beckett, wittily laughing at us, at life, at our curiosity, destiny, good and bad together, filled with the joy of a child who just discovered a new, exciting game.
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