The Plays of Samuel Beckett

Beckett remains one of the most important writers of the twentieth century whose radical experimentations in form and content won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. This Critical Companion covers his entire dramatic oeuvre, encompassing his plays for the stage, radio and television, and will be indispensable to students of his work.Challenging and at times perplexing, Beckett's work is represented on almost every literature, theatre and Irish studies curriculum in universities in North America, Europe and Australia. Katherine Weiss' admirably clear study of his work provides the perfect companion, illuminating each play and Beckett's vision, and investigating his experiments with the body, voice and technology. It includes in-depth studies of the major works Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Krapp's Last Tape,and as with other volumes in Methuen Drama's Critical Companions series it features too a series of essays by other scholars and practitioners offering different critical perspectives on Beckett in performance that will inform students' own critical thinking. Together with a series of resources including a chronology, glossary of theoretical and technical terms and a list of further reading, this is ideal for all students and readers of Beckett's work.

Katherine Weiss is an Associate Professor of English and Modern Drama at East Tennessee State University. She and Seán Kennedy are the editors of Samuel Beckett: History, Memory, Archive published in 2009 by Palgrave Macmillan. Additionally, she included the notes and commentary to Methuen Drama's student edition of Tennessee Williams's Sweet Bird of Youth (2010) and has published several articles on Samuel Beckett and Sam Shepard, among other modern and contemporary playwrights.

AcknowledgementsIntroduction The Stage Plays Waiting for GodotEndgame Krapp's Last Tape Happy Days Play Come and Go Footfalls The Radio Plays All That Fall Embers The Old Tune Words and Music, Cascando, Rough for Radio I, Rough for Radio II The Teleplays Eh Joe Ghost Trio ... but the clouds ... Nacht und Träume Quad What WhereCritical Perspectives 'Ghosts: Chaos and Freedom in Beckett's Spectral Theatre' by Xerxes Mehta 'A Spectrum of Fidelity, an Ethic of Impossibility: Directing Beckett' by Nicholas Johnson 'Beckett on Television, Beckett on Love: A Response to Badiou' by Graley Herren 'Krapp's Last Tape and Mapping Modern Memory' by Dustin Anderson Interviews Wendy Salkind on Not I Bill Largess on Ohio Impromptu Wendy Salkind, Peggy Yates and Bill Largess on Play Sam McCready on That Time and Ohio Impromptu Chronology GlossaryFurther Reading Index