Tag Archive: samuel beckett


GODOT IN ITALIAN

Filed under: Atheism, Italy, Theatre — Leave a comment
March 26, 2011

VLADIMIR: We have kept our appointment and that’s an end to that. We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment. How many people can boast as much?
ESTRAGON: Billions.

One of the main things I miss about London is the easy access to great theatre. Since moving to Italy 15 years ago I can count on one hand the amount of plays I’ve seen. Partly this is to do with navigating the language barrier (thankfully, less of an issue these days) but this is also due to a relative lack of  available shows in the provincial town of Cesena , where I live.

However, as a big admirer of Samuel Beckett, I didn’t want to pass up the chance of seeing a touring production of Waiting For Godot (Aspettando Godot) at the Teatro Bonci, by a theatre company from Genoa (Teatro Stabile di Genova). Continue reading →

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CAPTURING POLLY

Filed under: Music, Photography — Leave a comment
October 25, 2009

PJ-HarveyJane Bown’s lifetime in photography is justifiably celebrated and is in the news again through the publication of a collection of her most famous shots (‘Exposures’) and an exhibition at the Kings Place Gallery  in London.

A selection of her fantastic portraits can be seen in the  the gallery in the Observer .

All her subjects are in black and white and captured using just natural lighting. Bown, now in her 80s, is a modest and self effacing character who shuns the limelight and this  is probably what allowed her to get close to her subjects, even those who were notoriously camera shy, like Lucien Freud and Samuel Beckett.

The eyes are what you are drawn to when you see these images.

This great picture of P.J. Harvey, which I hadn’t previously seen,  illustrates what makes Jane Bown so great. In that strong sorrowful gaze you get a glimpse of what makes Polly Harvey’s music so powerful – the look (and the music) manages to be both assertive and fragile at the same time.

Brown almost certainly didn’t know Harvey’s music when she took this photo, just as she had never heard of Bjork or Jarvis Cocker when she was commissioned to photograph them.  This shows that her skill lies in being an instinctive judge of what made people tick.

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Portishead Go On

Filed under: Music — 1 Comment
March 16, 2008
portishead cover

I’ve spent the week with a leaked copy of Portishead’s new album (Third) practically on repeat play (It is officially released on April 28th) .Arriving after an hiatus of 10 years and only their third studio album since 1994, I’m sure I was not alone in expecting the worst. Lengthy gestation periods more often than not signify a lack of direction and a dearth of ideas.Yet from the kick-ass opening track (Silence) you know that this is not going to be the case here. Continue reading →

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SAMUEL BECKETT BIOGRAPHY

Filed under: Books, Theatre — Leave a comment
December 18, 2007

 

I seem to have been reading Samuel Beckett’s immense biography by James Knowlson on and off for most of the year. It is the only one to be officially authorised by Beckett and his estate, permission being granted by Beckett himself on condition that nothing be published until after his death. Knowlson was a friend of Beckett and an acknowledged authority of his works. The depth of understanding of the man and his writing is evident on every page. The sheer scale of research is awe inspiring but he is also able to organise this material to give a fully rounded portrait of one of the key artistic figures of the 20th century.

Continue reading →

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TEMPTATION TO ZOOLOGY

Filed under: Movies — Leave a comment
November 17, 2007

The Temptation To Zoology is a short film made in 2004 by New Weird American icons MV & EE (Matt Valentine & Erika Elder) together with Gabriel Walsh.

It offers a quirky and apparently random juxtaposition of sound and vision. Its surrealistic qualities seems tailor-made to infuriate ‘straight’ viewers accustomed to the reassurance of a structured narrative.

The psych-fuelled babble of the film’s subtitle makes it plain that lucidity is not a priority, being described unrevealingly as: “an incredible myth of things seen in the skysea concerning an animal so human and its transfiguration during a journey to the trysting place of an aeon“.

The languid voiceover near the start offers no further enlightenment. The voice refers to “reflected moonbeams” and “infinitesimal colours” in a tone strikingly reminiscent of the drawled inserts that punctuate Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band’s avant-blues-rock masterpiece -Trout Mask Replica.

The film, much like MV’s singular brand of Free-Folk, makes a positive virtue out of going with the flow and trusting instinct over intellect.

There’s an inbuilt hit and miss aspect to this approach – it easily strays into smugness and self indulgence but at the same time, if you are prepared to engage with its random design and see it as a skewed representation of freedom it begins to make more sense.

The zoology in the title I associate with the classification and characteristics of animals and finding some kinship with Nature. It is a theme analogous to the social conditioning of human beings.

Habit, as Samuel Beckett once observed, is a great deadener and when conventional choices all too often make us comfortably numb the pseudo-hippy vibe that permeates this film looks more fun than working for the man. In the words of George Clinton’s Funkadelic anthem: “Free your mind and you ass will follow”

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