Beyond Minimalism: Beckett's Late Style in the Theatre by Enoch Brater (review)

Book Reviews they are viewed by Knapp as intuitive forerunners who resisted the preconceptions and fixed rules and traditions of both theatrical art and social mores. Through her fluid prose, Knapp convincingly examines Antoine, Lugne-Poe, and Copeau as inspired explorers in search of the theatrical essence. The book is extremely well-illustrated, including production photographs, reproductions of posters and programs, and some scene designs. Knapp has also added a useful listing of all of the productions and first perfonnances at the Theatre Libre, The Theatre de l'Oeuvre, and the Theatre du Vieux-Colombier. Too little has been available in English about this seminal period in French theatre, making Knapp's The Reign o/the Theatrical Director: French Theatre, 188]-1924 an essential volume for anyone tantalized by the art of the stage director in the modem theatre. JAMES FISHER, WABASH COLLEGE ENOCH DRATER. Beyond Minimalism: BeckeN's Late Style in the Theatre. New York: Oxford University Press 1987. pp. xi, 209, illustrated. $24.95. In Beyond Minimalism Enoch Brater tells the story of Beckett's joking with Billie Whitelaw when he decided to insert the word "lacrosse" into Footfalls: II 'Oh, God,' said Beckett as he scribbled it in, 'tomes are going to be written about this' ." And sure enough Beckett criticism bas become more prodigious by the year. Among the plentiful tomes, Brater's book is a pleasure: the ideas are rich and the observations original. Contributing to this book's value and readability is Brater's prose which is remarkably free of critical argot; we are listening to a civilized voice, deeply serious, intelligent and witty. This is made all the more impressive by the thoroughness depth and breadth - of the scholarship. The book's first and seminal chapter, "Genre Under Stress," establishes Brater's angle of vision; he is not dealing with the politics of "genre jumping" '(the controversies over the translations of Beckett's fiction into performance), but rather with the far more difficult question of the very nature of Beckett's theatre, which, Brater maintains, from Not lon, "collapses our traditional way of thinking about drama as something separate and distinct from performance." Beckett. he tells us, is always concerned with the voice. that is, with language rather than dialogue, and this, Srater maintains, is essentially the poetic impulse which informs all the plays. from the earliest radio play, All That Fall. on; but, the argument continues, the crucial pressure in the late plays is away from the word and toward the astonishing visual image. The vital leap Brater makes is out of the conventional discussion of voice as character's or actor's. to show us that what we hear - and what we see - is the playwright's voice "relyriciz[ing] the genre," the "poeticization of the mise~en-scene . " Each chapter is an essay on a play or group of plays, loosely linked by Brater's central concern with Beckett's uses of rhythm - the rhythm of Janguage, the rhythm of lighting, the rhythm of movement - which create a stage unified as great pqetry Book Reviews 577 is unified. His rigorous analysis demonstrates that apparently technical considerations (such as blocking and lighting) are crucial not only to directing/acting, but to readingllisteningl seeing as well, Consonant with this reading of Beckett, Beater shows us how, in play after play, the visuals not only support the content, but override our need to rationally comprehend it. He does not attempt to tell us what each play means, but how it is, and to do that he roams through the canon with e~se and intimacy, drawing examples from the fiction as well as the drama, from the early work as well as the late. Enriching the discussion is Bcater's deep familiarity with Eliot, Joyce and Shakespeare , making connections which often surprise with their obvious rightness. Besides the discussion of these difficult and powerful plays - the sections on Not I, Footfalls, Ohio Impromptu and Rockaby are particularly strong - Brater examines the similarities and differences between the pieces written for live performance and those written for film and television. As a bonus. there is a good bit of that sort of insider infonnation which...