Word: godot
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...Becket, perhaps entitled "En Attendant Fletcher." The act limps by as the characters wait for the arrival of their accomplice, and the tensions between them continue to build. Mamet, it seems, wanted to show the ultimate powerlessness and futility of his characters, like Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot, but without the existential mantle that cloaks Becket's fine work and gives it its legitimacy, Mamet simply cannot pull it off. There is just not enough of a plot to give his idea any weight, and what little there is is far too flimsy to bear the tensions Mamet...
...main appeal of this record is its blend of musical and lyrical avantgardness. The Head strive for a pop sound that is quirky enough to interest an intellectual audience, and Talking Heads: 77 is truly a modernist product to use the old sales pitch: If you liked Waiting for Godot, you'll love this album. But if you are turned off by the idea of troubled monologues, spoken by a "70s Man" surveying the new vacancy, devoid of the anger that animates a punk like Johnny Rotten, then save your bread. "Q'est-ce que c'est Talking Heads" indeed...
...best plays, Waiting for Godot and Endgame, Beckett's economy has the same unadorned force as a bolt of lightning. In his worst, he seems merely to be making bleak jokes, the humor of which is lost on everyone but himself. These three plays, expertly directed by Beckett's chief interpreter, Alan Schneider, at the Manhattan Theater Club, show both sides of the playwright. Play ranks just below the best; That Time and Footfalls settle not far from the bottom...
...course Beckett the absurdist, the existentialist does come through in his style. Many lines in "Echo's Bones" and "Malacoda" remind us of that airy, disjointed dialogue in Waiting for Godot and Endgame. Beckett's poems are filled with much of the same choppy, incomplete, grammarless phrases that characterize his prose and dialogues. Yet there is still that cryptic element...
These collected poems are consistent with Beckett's other works. The subject matter, though a bit more personal, is just as poignant and profound, and there is not much change reflected in "Thither" written in 1976 as compared to "Gnome" written in 1934. As Beckett said in Waiting for Godot, "Nothing ever changes, it's always the same...