A Beckett Canon

1962–69: A Little Rush, Then Another

1962–69
A Little Rush, Then Another As was becoming habitual, Beckett jabbed ‹tfully at creating texts in each of his two languages, but he found it dif‹cult to complete even brief compositions . For example, although a sexual triangle might seem like the quintessential French subject, he began such a play in English in 1961; he gnawed at it sporadically during 1962, and, dissatis‹ed with the result, he nevertheless gave it to the Tophovens to translate for a German premiere in Ulm. After that June 1963 production (directed by Deryk Mendel, on the same program as both Acts without Words), Beckett revised his English and French versions of Play for premieres in 1964. Although my chapter title is drawn from Play, and although it encapsulates the phrasal rhythm within that play, it is not applicable to Beckett’s actual process of creation. However, the phrase is somewhat better suited to the mime play that he conceived for the Irish actor Jack MacGowran, which he aborted before completion. 1963
“J. M. Mime” Although Beckett abandoned his mime play for Jack MacGowran, his effort has interested Gontarski and Pountney. “Beckett outlined a maze of possible correct paths and errors for two players, either a son and father or a son and mother [one carrying the other, and both naked under their greatcoats], to describe all the permutations of possible paths along a square bisected at ‹rst 276 The holograph of “J. M. Mime” is in TCD (MS no. 4664, an undated notebook that also contains a brief aborted dialogue, the “Kilcool” fragments, and a translation into French of the radio play, Words and Music). The mime has been published in photocopy by S. E. Gontarski (1985, appendix C). from corners to corners. Beckett’s ‹rst major revision was to ‘complicate if necessary’ by adding two more bisecting lines, doubling the number of possible paths” (Gontarski 1985, 159). Beckett also introduces a dialogue between the two characters, one leaf of which seems to concern their pattern of locomotion. The rest of the holograph consists of a monologue by the son (presumably J. M.), but no one has remarked on the contents, which I cannot decipher. Some time afterward he began another mime play, which he jettisoned—“Mongrel Mime.” “Mongrel Mime” Beckett’s title “Mongrel Mime” is puzzling, but since the word mongrel means “mixed,” perhaps he is referring to the inclusion of a voice in a mime. In the revised version of the play, the stage is divided into three oblong boxlike compartments, each ‹ve feet deep and ‹ve and a half feet high, but with gradually decreasing width. These boxes are colored a gradually deepening gray. All the side walls, except for the one on the extreme right, have white doors that can open in both directions. Each door sports a black knob, a black bolt, and a lattice in a black frame. A small man, M, in his shabby black coat and hat has to stoop under the low ceiling. A voice commands M, and it does so monosyllabically: “Shut. Lock. Bolt.” M follows instructions, but he discards the key in the lattice. After “Rest. On,” M advances to the exit door and enters the next cubicle. “Same procedure.” The sounds of shutting, locking, bolting, and falling key are unrealistic and identical; they change from sharp to barely audible, and the pauses grow longer between each command and M’s obedient action. Since the rightmost wall has no door, M can make no ‹nal egress. M has been instructed to his own destruction. Yet one can imagine a tense, funny enactment of “Mongrel Mime.” Beckett also ventured into silent ‹lm. His American publisher, Barney Rosset, requested a short ‹lm script from three of “his” playwrights—Beckett , Ionesco, and Pinter—and Beckett’s scenario was the only one to be ‹lmed. In contrast to the slow evolution of Play, or to the abandoned mimes, Film moved swiftly to a conclusion. Rosset made his request of Beckett in February 1963, and in four April days at Ussy Beckett wrote the script. In May he showed it to Alan Schneider, the designated director of the ‹lm. Beckett sent the typescript to Rosset, before his June departure for Ulm and the German premiere of Play. A year later, in the summer of 1964, Beckett came to New a beckett canon: 1962–69 277 “Mongrel Mime” is Beckett’s title for an unpublished mime play. A holograph and a typescript are in the Lake...