Every day brings a new story. And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books.
Today is the story of December 22nd.
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It is the 356th day of the year, leaving nine days in 2021.
Although he was born in Dublin in 1906, Beckett lived most of his life in France. However, he wrote mostly in English, and he kept his Irish citizenship, and is widely considered to be near the top of the considerable list of great Irish writers.
His best known work, and one that maintains its place in the thearteric canon, is Waiting for Godot. The play, originally written in French as En attendant Godot, premiered in Paris in 1953. Its English version premiered in London two years later.
Billed as a "tragicomedy in two acts," the play consists of two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, discussing various topics and meeting people while on a country road near a tree, waiting for a character who never arrives.
Beckett rarely discusssed or commented on the play, although scholars have written dissertations on its meaning. Who or what Godot represents is unclear, and Beckett never explained.
The play is part of Beckett's minimalist writing style -- it has two acts but just one setting, and the stage is stripped bare. The characters themselves are known only through their words.
Later in his life, Beckett embraced minimalism in his theater work. Play had three character who were immersed up to their necks in funeral urns. Eh Joe, a television production, has the camera focusing upon the face of the title character. The play, Not I, shows, in Beckett's direction, "a moving mouth with the rest of the stage in darkness."
Beckett is often contrasted with the loquacious James Joyce is an old Irish joke: What's the difference between Beckett and Joyce?
The punch line: Joyce leaves nothing out; Beckett puts nothing in.
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