Bill on Beckett: An Interview with Bill Irwin
By Simon Hodgson
Former American Conservatory Theater Publications Manager
Former American Conservatory Theater Publications Manager
Bill Irwin may be best known to audiences as an award-winning actor and master clown, but he has also spent five decades immersed in the words of Samuel Beckett. On Beckett represents his third and most personal Beckett exploration, and we’re thrilled to be presenting this acclaimed piece at STC. The following interview highlights Irwin’s personal connection to Beckett, his impressions of the legendary writer and the unique perspective he brings to Beckett’s writing.
SIMON HODGSON: What is your first memory of Samuel Beckett’s plays?
BILL IRWIN: The first thing I ever read was Act Without Words I. I was struck by the style and clarity of the stage directions (it’s all stage directions). Very memorable—though it’s ironic to me now because that play is one of Beckett’s writings that calls to me least, at present. I’m drawn to his use of spoken language now.
SH: What was it like meeting Beckett?
BI: It was 30 years ago; I was about to play Lucky in Waiting for Godot— that’s what we spoke of most. I was very stiff, nervous and not as knowledgeable about his work as I wish I’d been. I wish I could meet him now—with his voice and language having echoed in my mind. I’d ask about Texts for Nothing and the structure of Godot and Endgame.
SH: Contemporary playwrights are sometimes compared to Beckett. What makes him such a yardstick?
BI: He has an unforgettable voice, whether it’s your taste or not, and he changed everything. Anyone whose characters look at questions of existence—with humor, not pedantry (and sometimes humor about pedantry)—is going to get compared to Mr. Beckett.
SH: How does your clowning experience inform your performance of Beckett’s work?
BI: It’s as much instinct as anything else. These two threads of work—baggy-pants comedy and Samuel Beckett’s writing—they just seem to connect. Beckett and his family went to the variety theater often—a point which his biographers make. His descriptions of physical business, his stage directions and his description of characters’ costuming often seem to echo the business of music-hall comics. When it came to casting, Beckett was interested in baggypants practitioners: Chaplin, Keaton, etc. He was not a “clown-writer”—he wasn’t writing for clowns—but he seemed an aficionado.
SH: What has been your favorite Beckett-related experience?
BI: I don’t have a single favorite experience, but sometimes speaking his language and combining it with motion, or certain character movement through my body, can begin to feel strangely right, joyful even. It feels like it may be reaching an audience in a way that I’d like it to, perhaps in a way Mr. Beckett might. I wouldn’t presume to know Mr. Beckett’s intentions in his writing—he famously said that he doesn’t claim to know them either—but sometimes things feel close to something valuable. The passages I’ve included in On Beckett are mostly passages that I’ve had in my head and worked with as a performer for a long time. I want to share them with audiences. I hope to share the place they’ve come to occupy within me.
BILL IRWIN: The first thing I ever read was Act Without Words I. I was struck by the style and clarity of the stage directions (it’s all stage directions). Very memorable—though it’s ironic to me now because that play is one of Beckett’s writings that calls to me least, at present. I’m drawn to his use of spoken language now.
SH: What was it like meeting Beckett?
BI: It was 30 years ago; I was about to play Lucky in Waiting for Godot— that’s what we spoke of most. I was very stiff, nervous and not as knowledgeable about his work as I wish I’d been. I wish I could meet him now—with his voice and language having echoed in my mind. I’d ask about Texts for Nothing and the structure of Godot and Endgame.
SH: Contemporary playwrights are sometimes compared to Beckett. What makes him such a yardstick?
BI: He has an unforgettable voice, whether it’s your taste or not, and he changed everything. Anyone whose characters look at questions of existence—with humor, not pedantry (and sometimes humor about pedantry)—is going to get compared to Mr. Beckett.
SH: How does your clowning experience inform your performance of Beckett’s work?
BI: It’s as much instinct as anything else. These two threads of work—baggy-pants comedy and Samuel Beckett’s writing—they just seem to connect. Beckett and his family went to the variety theater often—a point which his biographers make. His descriptions of physical business, his stage directions and his description of characters’ costuming often seem to echo the business of music-hall comics. When it came to casting, Beckett was interested in baggypants practitioners: Chaplin, Keaton, etc. He was not a “clown-writer”—he wasn’t writing for clowns—but he seemed an aficionado.
SH: What has been your favorite Beckett-related experience?
BI: I don’t have a single favorite experience, but sometimes speaking his language and combining it with motion, or certain character movement through my body, can begin to feel strangely right, joyful even. It feels like it may be reaching an audience in a way that I’d like it to, perhaps in a way Mr. Beckett might. I wouldn’t presume to know Mr. Beckett’s intentions in his writing—he famously said that he doesn’t claim to know them either—but sometimes things feel close to something valuable. The passages I’ve included in On Beckett are mostly passages that I’ve had in my head and worked with as a performer for a long time. I want to share them with audiences. I hope to share the place they’ve come to occupy within me.