- published: 25 Nov 2013
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Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in France for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.
Beckett is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century. Strongly influenced by James Joyce, he is considered one of the last modernists. As an inspiration to many later writers, he is also sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. He is one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd". His work became increasingly minimalist in his later career.
Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation". He was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984.
The Becketts were members of the Anglican Church of Ireland. The family home, Cooldrinagh in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, was a large house and garden complete with tennis court built in 1903 by Samuel's father, William. The house and garden, together with the surrounding countryside where he often went walking with his father, the nearby Leopardstown Racecourse, the Foxrock railway station and Harcourt Street station at the city terminus of the line, all feature in his prose and plays. Beckett's father was a quantity surveyor and his mother a nurse.
Actors: Maria de Medeiros (actress), Jean-Patrick Joseph (miscellaneous crew), Stephen McHattie (actor), Arthur Holden (actor), Richard Jutras (actor), Dominique Fortin (editor), Chip Chuipka (actor), Lynn Beaudin (miscellaneous crew), Linda Smith (actress), Marcel Beaulieu (writer), Victoria Barkoff (actress), Una Kay (actress), Neil Kroetsch (actor), Mariane Carter (costume designer), Nathalie Paquette (miscellaneous crew),
Plot: A young poet, Paul Susser, meets his master, the great author Samuel Beckett, in a small cafe. The two men initiate a complex friendship that spans the last two decades of Beckett's life and forever changes Paul's future. After Beckett's death, Paul meets Lucia an actress who wants to play Krapp, Beckett's most autobiographical male character. By opening himself up to this woman he will finally come to terms with Backett's legacy. This feature length fiction allows for a surprisingly fresh and intimate journey which follows the crisscrossed destinies of two creators attempting to 'say the unsayable'. A study in humanity, poetry and the creative process.
Keywords: cafe, theatreActors: Brendan McCarthy (producer), Martin Murphy (actor), Arthur Riordan (actor), Noreen Donohoe (producer), Hugh Chaloner (editor), Lucy Miller (actress), Donald Clarke (writer), Donald Clarke (director),
Genres: Comedy, Short,