On Beckett, Shakespeare Theatre Company

There are many different genres of one-actor shows, even within the subset of the self-created. A recent season at the Shakespeare Theatre Company featured actor Patrick Page's show about Shakespeare's villains, crafted under the idea that Shakespeare so advanced the portrayal of complex human stories on stage that he invented the first onstage villains. Now, the great Bill Irwin has arrived at STC with his own show, On Beckett, exploring the work of Samuel Beckett through his personal lens as an actor and clown. Throughout the 90 minute show, he moves back and forth between excerpts from the master's work and his own commentary as the performer, using texts that are both expected (Waiting for Godot is heavily featured--and also the only theatrical text in the piece) and unexpected (even Beckett's novel Watt makes an appearance). 

Bill Irwin in On Beckett, photo by Craig Schwartz.

 Any audience in the world is lucky to see Irwin onstage in any context, and it's a special gift to see him bring to life the work of a playwright that he feels so deeply connected to, and for whom he has such a passion to perform. His insights into the work are carefully and consciously framed not as an academic or even expert, but from his perspective as both an actor and a clown. The latter in particular is a joy to watch, even before the baggy pants make their appearance on stage, because it feels like such an inevitable revelation--of course this lens makes sense with these words, with this playwright's own experience, with the heaviness that informs so much of the text. Irwin's gift for clowning is well established, and he indulges both himself and the audience in sequences of pure physical comedy to demonstrate the link between the art of clowning and the ways that Beckett's text can move and shift to reveal meaning. At times, the performance does trend toward the lecture/demonstration model more than most evenings at the theatre, but truly--what better teacher could you have?