#samuel-beckett — Public Fediverse posts

Parler de ce qui empêche de parler

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.en-attendant-nadeau.fr/2026/10/06/parler-de-ce-qui-empeche-de-parler/

Theaterstücke als Buch zu lesen ist mitunter anstrengend. #wartenaufgodot #samuelbeckett #bücherliebe

Samuel Becketts Deutschlandreise von September 1936 bis April 1937 – Teil 4

In München besucht Beckett die Museen und diskutiert mit dem Direktor der Alten Pinakothek kritisch über Nazikunst und -architektur. Bekannte erzählen ihm von Goebbels Plan, die zeitgenössische Avantgardekunst aufzuwerten. Es solle eine Ausstellung der Werke im „Haus der deutschen Kunst“ geben, weswegen sie aus den Sammlungen genommen worden seien. Eine klare Lüge. Monate später wurde die diffamierende NS-Propaganda Schau „Entartete Kunst“ eröffnet. Am 1. April 1937 fliegt Beckett zurück nach Dublin.

https://www.hoerspielundfeature.de/german-diaries-teil-4-hoerspiel-nach-samuel-beckett-100.html

Samuel Becketts Deutschlandreise von September 1936 bis April 1937 – Teil 3

Hamburg, Hannover, Berlin, Dresden usw. – Auf seiner Deutschlandreise lernt der dreißigjährige Beckett immer wieder auch faszinierende Künstler, Kunstsammler und Intellektuelle kennen. Wie fließend die Grenzen zwischen Anpassung an den totalitären Staat und die Auflehnung gegen ihn ist, notiert er in seinem Tagebuch. Scharf beobachtete Alltagsszenen und tiefe Kunstbetrachtungen finden sich in seinen Notaten ebenso wie Reflexionen über seine eigene ungewisse Zukunft als Schriftsteller. Denn er findet keinen Verlag für seinen Roman „Murphy“.

https://www.hoerspielundfeature.de/german-diaries-teil-3-hoerspiel-nach-samuel-beckett-100.html

Happy Days review – Beckett’s bewitching heroine buries her existential fears
By Mark Fisher

Pitlochry Festival theatreIn what feels now like a premonition of the climate crisis, Siobhán Redmond is compelling as the everywoman putting on a brave face in an unforgiving landscape

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/sep/28/happy-days-review-beckett-pitlochry-festival-theatre-siobhan-redmond-forbes-masson

#Stage #Theatre #PitlochryFestivaltheatre #Culture #SamuelBeckett #TheGuardian #MarkFisher

https://www.europesays.com/ie/709528/ Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis: ‘It’s not for everyone. But I feel very alive when I watch it’ – The Irish Times #CecilyBrennan #DublinTheatreFestival #Éire #Entertainment #HannahArendt #IE #Ireland #LGBTQ #MartyRea #MentalHealth #PabloPicasso #SamuelBeckett #SarahKane #suicide #TomCreed

Samuel Becketts Deutschlandreise von September 1936 bis April 1937 – Teil 2

In herrlicher Abendstimmung kommt Beckett in Berlin an, sucht sich eine Pension in der Budapester Straße, pilgert tagsüber durch die Museen der Stadt und legt riesige Strecken zu Fuß zurück. Becketts Deutsch verbessert sich rasch, er zieht abends mit seinem Wirt durch die Berliner Kneipen, folgt den Gesprächen und wird Zeuge der schleichenden Entdemokratisierung: Ein „perfekter kleiner Demagoge“ überschüttet eine junge Frau mit seiner Naziideologie, als diese „völlig ruhig Positives über Juden sagt“. Angewidert verfolgt Beckett die Reden der Nazigrößen im Radio und notiert kursierende Witze über sie. Dann schreibt er: „Bald fange ich wirklich an zu kotzen. Oder ich fahre nach Hause!“

https://www.hoerspielundfeature.de/german-diaries-teil-2-hoerspiel-nach-samuel-beckett-100.html

Samuel Becketts Deutschlandreise von September 1936 bis April 1937

Hörspiel nach Samuel Beckett

German Diaries (1/4)

Samuel Beckett hat nur einmal in seinem Leben über längere Zeit Tagebuch geführt, nämlich auf seiner großen Deutschlandreise von September 1936 bis April 1937, die ihn u. a. nach Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden und München führte.

https://www.hoerspielundfeature.de/german-diaries-teil-1-hoerspiel-nach-samuel-beckett-100.html

Not I review – a mouth steals the show in Rufus Norris’s strange and deeply moving take on Beckett
By Arifa Akbar

Minghella theatre, ReadingSoprano Claire Booth’s mouth is isolated against a black background to capture the racing brain of a desperate woman, with added operatic flair

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/sep/20/not-i-review-minghella-theatre-reading-rufus-norris-samuel-beckett

#Theatre #Stage #SamuelBeckett #Culture #TheGuardian #ArifaAkbar

https://www.europesays.com/ie/686807/ How John McGahern wrote: ‘Everything begins in a copy book. Every draft would be by hand’ – The Irish Times #Éire #Entertainment #IE #Ireland #JohnMcgahern #leitrim #PhilipLarkin #SamuelBeckett #SeamusHeaney #UniversityOfGalway #WilliamGolding

Krapp’s Last Tape –The Cockpit, London

Writer: Samuel Beckett Director: Dave Wybrow A bare room lit with a single hanging lamp. A wooden desk.…
#London #Britain #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #England #Headlines #News #Europe #EU #DaveWybrow #DuncanHenderson #Krapp'sLastTape #MartaFossati #PeterMarinker #Review #SamuelBeckett #thecockpit #Theatre
https://www.europesays.com/gbr/london/20006/

Krapp’s Last Tape –The Cockpit, London

Writer: Samuel Beckett Director: Dave Wybrow A bare room lit with a single hanging lamp. A wooden desk.…
#EuropeSays #Britain #Europe #EU #London #DaveWybrow #DuncanHenderson #Krapp'sLastTape #MartaFossati #PeterMarinker #Review #SamuelBeckett #TheCockpit #Theatre
https://www.europesays.com/britain/116698/

https://www.europesays.com/britain/116698/ Krapp’s Last Tape –The Cockpit, London #DaveWybrow #DuncanHenderson #Krapp'sLastTape #London #MartaFossati #PeterMarinker #Review #SamuelBeckett #TheCockpit #Theatre

Pin de Fartie review – spoonerist remix of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame finds fresh absurdity in Argentina
By Leslie Felperin

Beckett’s masterpiece is given a postmodern cinema slant, with characters in different locations, music and humour in a free and fanciful interpretation

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/01/pin-de-fartie-review-samuel-beckett-endgame

#Film #Dramafilms #SamuelBeckett #Argentina #Americas #Culture #Worldnews #Theatre #Stage #TheGuardian #LeslieFelperin

https://www.europesays.com/at/355737/ Vor „Godot“: Samuel Beckett schimpft in Hitlerdeutschland über Nazis und das Essen – Tiroler Tageszeitung #Literatur #Nachrichten #News #NobelpreisFürLiteratur #SamuelBeckett #Schlagzeilen #Welt #World #WorldNews

There is genius that insists upon itself, and then there is genius that does a striptease. Hold these opposing poles in mind as you consider Night of the Jick Beast, the album of improvised goblin metal by Rushadicus. Here are eighteen tracks of experimental cello, composed on the evening of March 9, 2026 and recorded between the hours of six and eight pm. For instruments, we have a cello, two (2) kazoos, a viola, a guitar, and some flutes. The vocals spew forth in the nonsense goblin language of Sneth. Some tracks come in at a minute or less (opener “Portal to Eelsgard,” “Brokbath”). Others, like album centerpiece “Three Headed Jick Beast,” are nearly six minutes. So what is going on here–does Night of the Jick Beast blow your doors off with its brilliance right away, or is it the sort of thing that takes years or even generations to flower?

We may need to broaden our conception of genius. I listened closely to Night of the Jick Beast, and neither of the above definitions seems to apply. This leaves open the possibility that there is a third, as yet unconsidered, framework for appreciating the work of Rushadicus. Sole member Rushad Eggleston works within a tradition of provocation. His songs recall the open mic antics of anti-comedians like Neil Hamburger or The Purple Organ. This is music as an endurance test, with rules and standards that are private to the creator. The cello-and-kazoo attack of “Gargoyles Converge at the Pentaglyph” yields to the flute digressions of “Two Headed Fifing Faun.” It all feels like you’re being punished to no good end, but that is just the quitter in you. How do you get your eyes wide open enough to see the elephant that is Night of the Jick Beast?

Drugs and alcohol might be the answer. The energy unleashed by mind-altering substances fuels the creation and appreciation of art. This is the school of thought that asks us to prize the sweat equity of the artist, to treasure the endless sheet of paper that fed Jack Kerouac’s typewriter while he wrote On the Road as if that paper were the novel itself.1 Unfortunately, even this definition of genius fails to unlock the charms of Night of the Jick Beast. There’s kinetic force to spare in tracks like “Gravity vs Goblinity” and “Septupulary Imp Romp,” but it’s the kind you cross the street to avoid. Sometimes mania is just a halfway point between the meth pipe and the morgue.

I’m almost out of ideas for how to get at this thing, but I’m not out of paragraphs yet. I must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on–oh, hey, wait a minute! Let’s take a cue from existentialism and say all action is meaningless. So why not spend a decade honing a style called Sneth Metal or Blark Metal, one that relies on a rapid ricochet bowing technique called “the bounce?” It’s as good as doing anything else! The meaning might lie in summoning the will to act at all. This suggests that we use our now-enlightened ears to take another listen to “Spires of Gnistromé.” Here Rushadicus conjures up a black metal atmosphere by skillful use of the bounce. Could this track be the key to appreciating Night of the Jick Beast… ?

I failed to get to “yes.” And while the end of the review approaches, the struggle to esteem Night of the Jick Beast is just beginning. Until the truth comes along, I have no choice but to score this record with the ears and brain that came factory installed. Rushadicus seems like a good-hearted guy, and I am impressed with the isometric strength it takes for him to hold a horse pose while playing the cello and a kazoo at the same time. The actual music, however, is an irritating imposition on your time. To listen to Night of the Jick Beast is to submit yourself to a grueling gauntlet that rivals the 12 Labors of Hercules. That’s just a temporary assessment, though. If you happen by these crossroads again, I’ll be right here where you left me.

Rating: 0.5/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: rushadicus.bandcamp.com|rushadicus.com
Releases Worldwide: August 24, 2026

"A newly #published #diary of #SamuelBeckett’s extended trip to #Nazi #Germany in the late 1930s helps to explain why the #NobelPrize-winning #Irish #author became active in the #Resistance movement in Occupied #France. Already discussed and cited by #Beckett #scholars in such studies as Samuel #Beckett’s #GermanDiaries 1936–1937, the new #book explains how the creator of #WaitingforGodot, that dramatization of stasis and futility, could turn out to be a man of action opposing the #Holocaust and the downfall of German culture.

At a time when only an estimated 1% or so of #French citizens dared to assist the Resistance, Beckett was from neutral #Ireland, where sympathies were often skewed to the enemies of the much-loathed #British. But he risked his life to participate."

https://forward.com/culture/books/845609/samuel-beckett-resistance-irish-nobel-winning-author-antisemitism-nazi/

#SamuelBeckett #Nazis

"‘Their Strength Through Joy conversation is killing me’: Samuel Beckett’s German diaries

Published for the first time this month, the Irish writer’s record of his months in pre-war Germany is a fascinating insight into his understanding of, and unease with, Nazism.

The six notebooks that Beckett compiled during his six-month journey across Germany between late September 1936 and April 1937, published for the first time by German publisher Suhrkamp on 20 August this year, put paid to a commonly held view of the author of *Waiting for Godot* as a poet of pure pessimism, interested in despair and stasis but unconcerned by real-life politics.

On the basis of letters and diary extracts, critics of the past concluded that the 1969 Nobel Prize winner travelled across Germany in a state of self-absorption, without paying attention to the rise of totalitarianism. But the notebooks in their entirety show that Beckett was studying National Socialist resentment in close detail."

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/aug/15/samuel-beckett-german-diaries-nazism

Endgame review – Beckett’s lonely clowns raise an extra laugh
By Arifa Akbar

Pleasance at EICC, EdinburghFlabbergast Theatre’s production of Samuel Beckett’s desolate play leans into slapstick – and loses some of the searing threat

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/aug/15/endgame-review-lomond-theatre-at-pleasance-at-eicc-edinburgh

#Edinburghfestival2026 #Edinburghfestival #Culture #Stage #Theatre #SamuelBeckett #TheGuardian #ArifaAkbar

‘Their Strength Through Joy conversation is killing me’: Samuel Beckett’s German diaries
By Kate Connolly

Published for the first time this month, the Irish writer’s record of his months in pre-war Germany is a fascinating insight into his understanding of, and unease with, Nazism

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/aug/15/samuel-beckett-german-diaries-nazism

#SamuelBeckett #Books #Autobiographyandmemoir #Culture #Germany #Nazism #Europe #TheGuardian #KateConnolly

https://www.europesays.com/afrique/177722/ Le poème du dimanche | ‘‘Poème’’ de Samuel Beckett #Cooldrinagh #Hammamet #irlande #Nobel #SamuelBeckett #Tunisie

Una obra para la esperanza: Teatro Nacional Chileno revisita legado de Samuel Beckett desde la ternura y la humanidad | vía #UChileRadio

https://radio.uchile.cl/2026/08/05/una-obra-para-la-esperanza-teatro-nacional-chileno-revisita-legado-de-samuel-beckett-desde-la-ternura-y-la-humanidad/

#millaraylobosgarcía #nosebeckett #paulaluchsinger #samuelbeckett #teatro #teatronacionalchileno #tnch

#SamuelBeckett #Nazis #history #bookstodon

"'What a Schererei': Beckett’s view of Nazi Germany

The University of Bern, together with the University of Reading, is publishing Samuel Beckett’s *German Diaries* for the first time. In these diaries from 1936/37, the Irish writer describes his journey through Nazi Germany. The edition is edited by Bern literary scholar Oliver Lubrich and British Beckett expert Mark Nixon and published by Suhrkamp Verlag. It is the last major unpublished text by the Nobel Prize winner in Literature and has been eagerly awaited worldwide. 

The *German Diaries* are the only diaries that Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) ever kept over a longer period of time. After Beckett’s death, his nephew found them in his Paris apartment. They consist of six notebooks comprising 550 closely written pages. Mark Nixon from the University of Reading, Director of the International Beckett Foundation, and Oliver Lubrich, Professor of Modern German and Comparative Literature at the University of Bern, have now edited them together: as a worldwide first edition in the English original with German translation. The volume runs to 1,352 pages and will be published on 20 August 2026 by Suhrkamp Verlag in Berlin. It is the last work by the Nobel laureate in Literature that has so far remained unpublished.

The edition makes an extraordinary literary and historical document available in full for the first time and in a scholarly annotated format, including translation, chronology, itinerary, indexes and a glossary of Beckett’s idiosyncratic German vocabulary. As Oliver Lubrich notes, the edition brings together literary and contemporary history. Editions in further languages are planned. The project has already attracted considerable international attention in advance and illustrates the impact and societal relevance of humanities research at the University of Bern.

(. . .)

At the same time, Beckett also records ambivalences – for instance, Nazis who are not personally disagreeable. 'The *German Diaries’*,' says Lubrich, 'are a historical document, the psychogram of a society, and a literary text. They help us to understand how people respond to authoritarian ideologies and how dictatorships function. Unfortunately, these questions remain topical today.' This underlines the importance of the humanities for current debates on democracy.

(. . .)

The diaries also shed light on the development of Beckett’s thinking and aesthetics. 'The journey is at the same time a laboratory of Beckett’s poetics,' says Lubrich. 'It raises the question of what kind of language can still be found when authoritarian ideologies prevail.' For a long time, Beckett was regarded as an apolitical author. His most famous work, the absurdist play 'Waiting for Godot,' is usually interpreted as a timeless piece about the meaninglessness of existence. 'But now we can read in the diaries how precisely Beckett described totalitarianism,' says editor Lubrich, 'and this play, too, must be understood historically: Two Jews on the run are waiting for their human trafficker, who is to take them across the border into Switzerland.'"

https://mediarelations.unibe.ch/media_releases/2026/media_releases_2026/what_a_schererei_becketts_view_of_nazi_germany/index_eng.html

‘O luto é o elemento estruturante da humanidade’, acredita Júlio Conte

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2026/07/31/o-luto-e-o-elemento-estruturante-da-humanidade-acredita-julio-conte/

"What shall we say of today? Better yet, what shall I say of today? That I will try to do better, perhaps. But Beckett hasn’t much patience for such resolutions." Robert Zaretsky for The American Scholar https://theamericanscholar.org/beckett-the-prophet/?src=longreads #samuelbeckett #godot #theater #art #writing #longreads

TV guide: the best new shows to watch, starting tonight – The Irish Times

Pick of the weekTrinity’s TreasuresFriday, RTÉ One, 8.30pm What would happen if you went back to visit your…
#NewsBeep #News #TV #AnyaTaylor-Joy #AU #Australia #belfast #BillNighy #bradley-walsh #Chrispackham #cork #DianeMorgan #Entertainment #HannahWaddingham #john-millington-synge #Netherlands #ruth-negga #samuelbeckett #seamus-heaney #trinity-college-dublin-tcd #will-ferrell
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/795363/

https://www.europesays.com/ie/581673/ TV guide: the best new shows to watch, starting tonight – The Irish Times #AnyaTaylorJoy #Belfast #BillNighy #BradleyWalsh #ChrisPackham #cork #DianeMorgan #Éire #Entertainment #HannahWaddingham #IE #Ireland #JohnMillingtonSynge #Netherlands #RuthNegga #SamuelBeckett #SeamusHeaney #TrinityCollegeDublinTcd #TV #WillFerrell

Waiting for "Waiting for Godot".

I wonder how many people in this theatre posted the same thing to social media. 😄

#LiveTheatre #PerformingArts #WaitingForGodot #SamuelBeckett

https://www.europesays.com/ie/537851/ ‘Indecent’ Ulysses: The British ban and how it was lifted – The Irish Times #BreakingNews #BreakingNews #FeaturedNews #FeaturedNews #Headlines #JamesJoyce #LatestNews #LatestNews #MainNews #MainNews #News #SamuelBeckett #TopStories #TopStories #ulysses #weekendreview #World #WorldNews #WorldNews

A releitura sem coragem de Fim de Partida

https://outraspalavras.net/poeticas/a-releitura-sem-coragem-de-fim-de-partida/

https://www.europesays.com/se/268516/ John Sjögren:: Sommaren är kort – men också evig #Augustinus #Business #Economy #Ekonomi #Hamlet #JuliaKristeva #Melankoli #SamuelBeckett #SE #SvDBerättande:Kultur #Svenska #Sverige #Sweden #Swedish

#OpeningLines

#Murphy by #SamuelBeckett 📚 #bookstodon

https://www.europesays.com/ie/511414/ The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon on fame and farming: ‘I’m a grumpy old bastard now’ – The Irish Times #Blur #CathyDavey #DonaldTrump #Éire #Entertainment #IE #Ireland #NationalConcertHall #NeilHannon #NeilTennant #OscarWilde #Prince #SamuelBeckett #TimotheeChalamet

Anne Carson in Berlin: Sie leistet Widerstand gegen die Dummheit

Schwer zu bestimmen, wann das alles anfing, aber jetzt ist es so: Die Schlange gleicht der vorm Berghain.…
#Berlin #Deutschland #Deutsch #DE #Schlagzeilen #Headlines #Nachrichten #News #Europe #Europa #EU #AktuelleNachrichtenausBerlin #AktuelleNewsausBerlin #AnneCarsoninBerlin #BerlinNews #Feuilleton #Germany #lyrik #NachrichtenausBerlin #NewsausBerlin #Poesie #SamuelBeckett #Schriftstellerin
https://www.europesays.com/de/1051336/

https://www.europesays.com/de/1051336/ Anne Carson in Berlin: Sie leistet Widerstand gegen die Dummheit #AktuelleNachrichtenAusBerlin #AktuelleNewsAusBerlin #AnneCarsonInBerlin #Berlin #BerlinNews #Deutschland #Feuilleton #Germany #lyrik #NachrichtenAusBerlin #NewsAusBerlin #Poesie #SamuelBeckett #Schriftstellerin

https://www.europesays.com/ie/501638/ Séamas O’Reilly: ‘As I’ve grown older I’ve realised how formative the Troubles were’ – The Irish Times #AislingBea #BloodySunday #ChrisODowd #Disney #Éire #Entertainment #FlannOBrien #IE #Ireland #JamesJoyce #MaryMcaleese #NorthernIreland #OmaghBombing #SamuelBeckett #SeamasOReilly #StormontAssembly #Twitter

https://www.europesays.com/ie/498012/ Marita Conlon-McKenna: ‘I write what I see and what I feel. I can sense things. I always have’ – The Irish Times #Éire #Entertainment #IE #Ireland #JamesJoyce #magazine #MeMyselfAndIreland #OscarWilde #SamuelBeckett #SeamusHeaney #YourStories

https://www.europesays.com/ie/483723/ A new Wild Atlantic Way? How nine ‘literary routes’ could form a map of Irish writing – The Irish Times #Armagh #Borderlands #derry #Donegal #down #Éire #Entertainment #IE #Ireland #JohnMcgahern #leitrim #Louth #SamuelBeckett #Sligo #WbYeats #WildAtlanticWay

Godot tragicomique

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.en-attendant-nadeau.fr/2026/04/21/godot-osinski/

#WritersCoffeeClub ~ Name a writer whose voice is just exquisite. Share a sample.

"I have my faults, but changing my tune is not one of them."

~ Samuel Beckett

#SamuelBeckett

#SamuelBeckett nacque 120 anni fa. Questo #film italiano del 2023 racconta la storia di un gruppo di carcerati che prova a mettere in scena il suo testo più celebre, "Aspettando Godot", emblema del #teatro dell'assurdo. Watch "Grazie ragazzi" https://streamingcommunityz.pet/it/watch/6292

@spettacoli

"James Joyce was a synthesizer, trying to bring in as much as he could. I am an analyser, trying to leave out as much as I can."

~ Samuel Beckett, born today, 1906

#SamuelBeckett #Quote #Today

"Krapp's Last Tape"

becket by Pinter at The Royal Court in 2006.

📺 🎥 🎞️ 🎭

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qzdk

#TV #television #Theatre #HaroldPinter #SamuelBeckett #RoyalCourt

words and music- for two speakers, two flutes, vibraphone, piano, violin, viola, cello / samuel beckett, morton feldman

https://youtu.be/hJShzAgmyxA?is=Mu2hUxPeb_M4MBGR

Words and Music
for two speakers, two flutes, vibraphone, piano, violin, viola, cello.

Ensemble Recherche, Music (Bob)
Stephen Lind, Words (Joe)
Omar Ebrahim, Croak

A first look at Waiting for Godot - Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUXtzkLTABI

#WaitingForGodot #PatrickStewart #IanMcKellen #SamuelBeckett #Play

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett

i`m all this words
all this strangers

Ich bin all diese Worte
all diese Fremden

https://www.cocosse.com/

Miscast: The Playwright Decides, and No One Else Gets a Vote

There is a moment in the life of every playwright when someone walks into a rehearsal room and announces that the character you wrote is not, in fact, the character you wrote. The director has a vision. The institution has a policy. The casting committee has decided that your Irish Catholic mother from the Southside of Chicago would be better served by an actress who has no connection to the world you built because connection, in the current theatrical climate, is less important than representation, and representation is whatever the people who control the stage say it is. You sit there. You watch your play become someone else’s argument. And you have two choices: you can let it happen, or you can pull the production.

I pulled the production.

That story appears in Chapter 11 of Miscast: Who Owns the Story on Stage?, my new book, now available in eBook, paperback, and PDF from David Boles Books. The anecdote is from Columbia University, where I was earning my MFA, and where a director proposed splitting a single character in my play into bipolar twins under the banner of non-traditional casting. I said no. I cancelled the production. I lost the showcase. I kept the play. That was more than thirty years ago, and I have spent the time since thinking about what that moment meant, not just for me but for every playwright who has watched the American theatre transform casting from an artistic decision made by the author into an institutional mandate imposed over the author’s objection.

Miscast is the book that thinking produced.

The argument is simple. The playwright creates the characters. The playwright determines what the characters are. No institution has the right to override that determination. When Lin-Manuel Miranda casts actors of color as the Founding Fathers in Hamilton, that is authorial choice, and it is art. When an institution imposes non-traditional casting on a playwright’s work without the playwright’s knowledge or against the playwright’s wishes, that is something else entirely. It is expropriation. It is the seizure of creative authority from the person who did the creating. And it is now standard practice in the American theatre, codified in equity agreements, hiring mandates, and the Dramatists Guild’s own 2021 Inclusion Rider, the first contract addendum in theatre history that asks playwrights to redirect their copyright authority toward institutional demographic objectives.

That is a sentence worth reading twice.

The book traces the full arc. It begins with the all-male stages of fifth-century Athens, where Medea and Clytemnestra were performed by masked men in a civic festival that excluded women not because they lacked talent but because the stage was a function of democratic citizenship and women were not citizens. It moves through the Restoration revolution of 1660, when Charles II returned from French exile and issued a royal warrant requiring female roles to be performed by women, ending two thousand years of all-male convention in England overnight. It examines the blackface minstrelsy of the nineteenth century, which I argue is not the opposite of non-traditional casting but its structural cousin: both treat the actor’s body as raw material on which someone else’s vision is painted, the one through burnt cork, the other through institutional policy, with the same underlying assumption that the controlling authority, not the playwright, decides what the body on stage means.

That claim will make people uncomfortable. It is meant to. The surface justifications of blackface and non-traditional casting are opposite, one rooted in white supremacy, the other in racial justice, but the structural relationship between the performer’s body and the institution that governs the stage is identical. The body is canvas. The institution holds the brush. The playwright, in both systems, is irrelevant.

The book then turns to case studies that give the argument flesh. Samuel Beckett’s refusal to allow the American Repertory Theatre to cast women in Endgame in 1984, which established that a playwright’s stage directions are not suggestions but legally enforceable elements of the work. August Wilson’s 1996 address at the Theatre Communications Group conference, “The Ground on Which I Stand,” which declared that Black plays require Black directors and Black actors, and which remains the most important speech about race and the American stage delivered in the last half century. The casting of Hamilton and the 2022 revival of 1776, where color-conscious casting was deployed to reimagine the founding mythology of white America through non-white bodies, with radically different results. The removal of a white ASL interpreter from a performance of The Lion King because the actors on stage were Black, which raises a question the theatre has not answered: is an interpreter a performer or a conduit? Ali Stroker’s Tony-winning performance in Oklahoma!, which asks whether a wheelchair in a scene that depends on physical running is an artistic disruption or an artistic contribution, and who gets to decide. Eugene O’Neill’s Irish families, in which the ethnicity is not decoration but architecture, load-bearing walls that collapse if you remove them.

Each of these cases is examined at length, with sources documented and arguments presented with as much candor as I can bring to the page. I have tried to be fair. I have also tried to be honest. Where those two imperatives conflict, I chose honesty. That choice runs through the entire book, and it is the choice I have made in every professional decision since I founded The United Stage on the principle that the playwright has the right to direct the first public performance of the playwright’s own play.

I have been a dues-paying member of the Dramatists Guild of America since July 2, 1984, member number 45010, enrolled on the advice of a freshman playwriting teacher at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who read the first one-act play I ever wrote and told me to join immediately. I did not understand at eighteen what that membership meant. I understand it now. The Guild was built to protect the playwright. Its Bill of Rights, maintained since the first Minimum Basic Agreement of 1926, affirms the playwright’s right to approve casting, the creative team, and production elements, to be present at rehearsals, to own the copyright, and to protect the integrity of the text. This book criticizes the Guild’s Inclusion Rider, and I want to be clear that the criticism is offered from within the Guild, by a member who has been paying dues without interruption for more than forty years, who believes in the Guild’s foundational mission, and who writes this book in its defense.

The book also benefits from the expertise of Janna Sweenie, my collaborator on American Sign Language educational materials, who contributed her knowledge of Deaf culture, interpreter ethics, and the NAD-RID Code of Professional Conduct to the chapter on the Lion King interpreter incident. The precision in that analysis is hers. The errors in the book are mine.

Miscast is not a book about inclusion. It is a book about authorship. The distinction matters more than any other distinction in the American theatre today, because every institution that promotes non-traditional casting claims to be expanding inclusion, and some of them are, but the mechanism by which they do it requires seizing creative authority from the person who created the work. That seizure is the subject of this book. That seizure is what I spent thirty years watching. That seizure is what I said no to in a rehearsal room at Columbia, and what I am saying no to now, in print, at full length, with documentation.

The playwright decides. That is the ground on which this book stands.

Miscast: Who Owns the Story on Stage? is available now from David Boles Books in Kindle eBook ($9.99), paperback ($16.99), and free PDF download. David Boles is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America. He holds an MFA from Columbia University and has been writing for the stage, for television, and for publication for more than four decades.

Tres libros sobre trastiendas: la intimidad de la escritura, enredos de un traductor y la mirada en Japón

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.eldiarioar.com/cultura/tres-libros-trastiendas-intimidad-escritura-enredos-traductor-mirada-japon_1_12907146.html

Forget Keanu: Ulster Scots translation of Beckett classic takes on spate of celebrity Godots https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/jan/01/samuel-beckett-waiting-for-godot-new-ulster-scots-translation #SamuelBeckett #NorthernIreland #Theatre #Ireland #Culture #Stage #UkNews

"The wind had dropped, as it so often does in Dublin when all the respectable men and women whom it delights to annoy have gone to bed, and the rain fell in a uniform, untroubled manner."

—Samuel Beckett, A Wet Night

#books #Dublin #Beckett #SamuelBeckett #writing #wind #rain #weather

Sunday Morning Reading

Another Sunday. More snow overnight. More shoveling later. The holidays creep closer or perhaps they’re already here, given that grandpa mode has kicked into high gear. Started writing a new play out of the blue yesterday. I have no idea why, but it just tumbled out of my brain on to the screen via the keyboard. Time to share some Sunday Morning Reading. Read as you will, even if it’s on a smart toilet.

I often save the softer pieces for later in this column, but I’ll lead today with David Todd McCarty’s Christmas Means Comfort. Tell that to the rooster.

The world lost a treasure this week with the passing of architect Frank Gehry. Lee Bray writes a nice obituary and tribute. Check out Architect Frank Gehry Who Designed Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavillion and Foot Bridge Dies at 96.

Samuel Beckett’s Hands is a terrific piece by Rob Tomlinson about, well it’s about Samuel Beckett’s hands and how Dupuytren’s contracture may have influenced not just how, but what he wrote, given that Beckett always begin his writing with pen and paper.

While I’m sharing stories about playwrights, the movie Hamnet is garnering lots of attention and accolades. (I haven’t seen it yet.) Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s excellent novel of the same name, Hamnet mostly follows accepted scholarship that William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet while grieving the death of his son, Hamnet. (At the time, the two names were practically interchangeable.) As with most things Shakespeare, there’s generally accepted knowledge and there are always those who challenge it. James Shapiro takes a look at The Long History of the Hamnet Myth.

And while I’m sharing stories about movies, take a look at Susan Morrison’s piece on How Noah Baumbach Fell (Back) In Love With The Movies.

I linked earlier this week to a piece by Phillip Bump called There Are Limits to the Hitler-Trump Comparison. Just Ask These Historians. I don’t disagree with the thesis. I just think it stops short in the way most history usually does.

Rory Rowan and Tristan Sturm write that Peter Thiel’s Apocalyptic Worldview Is A Dangerous Fantasy. Here’s hoping this first draft of our current history proves lasting.

There’s been much talk about all things military recently given how the current administration is tossing away most of what we believe the military stands for as easy as my grandson tosses away toy soldiers. Carrie Lee says The Soldier In The Illiberal State Is A Professional Dead End. I concur. Sadly.

In the wake of the cataclysm that was Twitter, social media is essentially a messy muddle these days with users continuing to migrate from one platform to another seeking some sort of place that feels comfortable enough to share and often discomfort others. Ian Dunt writes what he calls a love letter to one platform with Thank God for Bluesky.

Smart toilets were in the news this week. I actually got to see and use one at a Christmas party last night. All I could think about while doing my business was this piece by Victoria Song called Welcome To The Wellness Surveillance State. 

And to conclude this week, Amogh Dimri informs us that the Oxford University Press has chosen Rage Bait as 2025’s Word of the Year. Dimiri thinks it’s a brilliant choice. I guess it begs the question, if we’re angry enough to rage, is it really baiting?

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

#ai #chicago #culture #hamnet #history #inspiration #military #peterThiel #phillipBump #poetry #politics #religion #samuelBeckett #smartToilets #sundayMorningReading #tech #wellness #williamShakespeare2 #writing

Samuel Beckett on the Couch

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/samuel-beckett-on-the-couch

Samuel Beckett on the Couch

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/samuel-beckett-on-the-couch

@variety_feed

TIL it's possible to spend $7.5 million putting on a production of... 'Waiting for Godot'

#SamuelBeckett #KeanuReeves #AlexWinter

The Metaphoric Library

by Michael Plante

I call forth the Gods of my youth
the ones that taught me everything.
Bring me light or bring me darkness
let me chew on both until I gag.
I would forfeit my life just to own a page of history!

I journey down a worn path leading to the well of creativity
where the Gods themselves have travelled
searching for resolve on the blank pages I carry.
Fate delivers me a bucket full of holes
and a broken rope.

The metaphoric library I carry around
holds many of history greatest;
those who own their own page of history.
Those who subscribe to none other than their own principles
walking like giants across the folds of time.

I whisper down the well;
Come play on my empty field
Expose your greatness to the vastness of my mind
For my hunger exceeds my wits
And dawn quickly approaches.

Luck crawls out from the well
carrying his master’s weight in bags.
Irony befalls this dutiful servant
for all that he is, he is not.

Alice decides to make an appearance
From the same well she peers over the edge
then chases Lucky like a white rabbit
intrigued by his hat and the story it tells.

Master Gregor winks from beyond the grave.
Metamorphosis has served him well.
From the darkness he arrives in new light
playing a discarded violin.

I watch the trio run off
dancing like the children they are.
Untethered from their bindings, they are pages in the wind
forever touching the imaginations of dreamers
and those seeking to wear the shoes of Gods.

-end-

Paying homage to the classics.
Waiting For Godot, by Samuel Beckett, 1952
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, 1865
The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, 1915

Image: Waiting For Godot, from Actor’s Center Australia’s web page.
Link: https://www.actorscentreaustralia.com.au/courses/waiting-for-godot/
Used without permission.

I hope you’ve enjoyed The Metaphoric Library.

@aakoskin

See also the JCO #SamuelBeckett tribute Escalator Over The Hill with Jack Bruce and Linda Ronstadt among the usual suspects!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalator_over_the_Hill

“Not one person in a hundred knows how to be silent and listen, no, nor even to conceive what such a thing means. Yet only then you can detect, beyond the fatuous clamour, the silence of which the universe is made.”
-Samuel Beckett

#tomwaits #samuelbeckett #silence #knowledge

Bill and Ted's Broadway Debut

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/keanu-reeves-and-alex-winter-reunite-on-stage-in-broadways-waiting-for-godot

#Broadway #plays #KeanuReeves #AlexWinter #WaitingForGodot #SamuelBeckett

Augustin Trapenard : "En attendant Godot", une parfaite métaphore de l'attente du gouvernement

https://vid.freedif.org/w/sHiHPsDN8vU5hBwwc7GHyB

Photo: Alex Winter & Keanu Reeves for "Waiting for Godot"—Andy Henderson via "Variety"

#SamuelBeckett #JamieLloyd #Revival #Theater #Broadway #LegitimateTheater #WaitingForGodot #KeanuReevws #AlexWinter