A Mind-Bending Evening of Beckett
The Irish Repertory Theater presents an evening of three plays by Irish master Samuel Beckett – all of them short, all of them weird, and all of them decidedly geared toward the avant-garde among us. A Mind-Bending Evening of Beckett consists of “Act Without Words,” cleverly yet awkwardly performed with puppets, “Breath,” on record as the shortest play in history (at 25 seconds), and “Play” a dizzyingly fast round-robin story of a love affair told by three disembodied heads.
The production itself isn’t the best (technical issues made the brisk hour-long run time feel quite long), but if any of the above descriptions conjure a grin, this aptly named show is just the thing to satisfy your off-kilter sensibilities. For those with more traditional tastes, don’t be put off by the mixed reviews – be bold! Dare to be confounded by the unapologetically strange! And even if you don’t like it, you spent just one hour watching Samuel Beckett. It’s good for you.
Recommended if…
You love “Waiting for Godot” and want to try out some B-side Beckett;
You are a glutton for the avant-garde; OR
You want to see what the shortest play in history looks like (it really defies description).
LOCATION
The Irish Reperatory Theatre
132 West 22nd Street
New York City
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RUNNING TIME
1 hour, 1 intermission (no, really)
TICKETS
$40.00 (click here for tickets)
DATES
Performances through December 1st
REVIEWS
New York Times
“Why Beckett now? Perhaps his brand of despair — stark, leavened with bleak humor, and most important, articulated with such brevity — is well suited to our over-scheduled present, helping us cope with our own despair if not surmount it.”
TheaterMania
Irish Rep presents three short masterpieces of Absurdist Theater
StageBuddy.com
The actors, the designers, and the director all clearly worked exceptionally hard, and then they did the most incredible thing: they stepped out of the way of the play, and let the writing alone.
Theater Pizzazz!
A Puppet and Three Talking Heads
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written by Samuel Beckett
Directed by Bob Flanagan
Featuring Sameerah Luqmaan-Harris, Rachel Pickup, Paul Radki and Rebecca Leigh Silverman