The Beckett Actor by Jordan R. Young (review)

Book Reviews thejoint interview with Pinter and Clive Donnerregarding the filming of The Caretaker. But, still, the need for a comprehensive collection of Pinter's interviews persists. The extracts, organized into faurparts ("General Studies" and the separate sections on The Birthdi!YParty, The Caretaker, and The Homecoming) range from the perspectives of academic and other professional critical interpreters (Nigel Alexander. Guido Almansi, John Russen Brown, Ruby Cohn, Peter Davison, Bernard Dukore, John Elsom, Martin Esslin, Andrew Kennedy. Ronald Knowles, Charles Marowitz, Austin Quigley, John Russell Taylor, Simon Trussler, Katharine 1. Worth) to accounts of the experiences ofstage and film directors (C1ive Donner. Peter Hall) to the drama criticism ofprofessional journalists (Philip Hope-Wallace, Irving Wardle, T.e. Worsley) and the book review of The Caretaker by fellow playwright John Arden to some of Pinter's own views in the single item of his published correspondence "A Letter to Peter Wood" (1958/1981) and the poem "A View of the Party" (1958/1978). This is a versatile collection, particularly useful for undergraduate research and perhaps to be enjoyed by graduate students as well. The more advanced scholar will probably already have on hand the complete articles from which many of these pieces were extracted, attesting to the astuteness of Scott's choices. For the college or university teacher, this book might prove an important adjunct to a list of required readings for a course in modem drama or a seminar on Pinter; it includes a very brief "Select Bibliography" (pp. 200-01). Another important distinction between these two books results from the different cultural identities and institutional situations of their editors: whereas all but two of Gale's contributors are Americans (and even Esslin, who still lives much of the year in England, now teaches at Stanford University), Scott's are mostly English, though he does include some material by three Americans - Cohn, Dukore, Quigley (a native of England and educated mostly there); like Esslin. Brown now teaches in America. Such biases limit the perspectives on Pinter presented by these books. There could also be more women and other so-called minorities represented; among the forty contributors to both books, only four are women (a paltry 10 per cent), though there may be at least as many women as men who have written and who are writing on Pinter's work. A selectionon culturally more diverse authors might demonstrate how views ofPinter have been developing in heterogeneous contexts throughout the world. SUSAN HOLLIS MERRITT, CORNELL UNIVERSITY JORDAN R. YOUNG. The Beckett Actor. Beverly Hills, California: Moonstone Press 1987· pp. 206. $24·95· Part biography, part reportage, this is a fascinating portrait of a "rasping cackling, roaring, keening" (pp. 15- 16) man, nicknamed "the Snitch" or "Snitchy" because of his long nose, "a little green man" (p. 42) who occasionally played the part ofa leprechaun, an "eccentric, gnomish" (p. 44) comedian, who will be remembered forever as having created upon the stage a distiHation ofthe Beckett universe. Mel Gussow called him "the Book Reviews quintessential Beckett actor" (The New York Times, 20 November 1970). As Me. Young writes: "MacGowran could portray O'Casey's wise fools better than any actor of his generation - when he wasn't playing Beckett's sad clowns . . ."(p. IS7). Born on October 13,1918, on the south side ofDublin, JobnJoseph McGowranspent his early life "a few short miles from where Samuel Beckett had grown up in the Dublin suburb ofFoxrock (p. 19). His father was acommercial travellerwho once saw his son in Death ofa Salesman. His mother. who "wanted a son who looked like Leslie Howard" (p. 19) was never satisfied with anything the boy. or later the mature man, achieved. In 1972, when he was scheduled to OpeD in Pinter's The Caretaker, he visited his elderly mother, only to be greeted with bitter words: "You're nothing but afailure. You'rejust like your father; you'll never amount to anything" (p. 155). For aman who died in his fIfties, Jack MacGowran produced an impressive amount of work. One need only peruse the chronologies at the end ofthe book to assess the veracity of this statement. Starting out with his sister in the Rathmines and Rathgar...