Lost Samuel Beckett Play

[Dave Monroe]

Scholars Discover 23 Blank Pages That May As Well Be
Lost Samuel Beckett Play

April 26, 2006 | Issue 42•17

PARIS—Just weeks after the centennial of the birth of
pioneering minimalist playwright Samuel Beckett,
archivists analyzing papers from his Paris estate
uncovered a small stack of blank paper that scholars
are calling "the latest example of the late Irish-born
writer's genius."

The 23 blank pages, which literary experts presume is
a two-act play composed sometime between 1973 and
1975, are already being heralded as one of the most
ambitious works by the Nobel Prize-winning author of
Waiting For Godot, and a natural progression from his
earlier works, including 1969's Breath, a 30-second
play with no characters, and 1972's Not I, in which
the only illuminated part of the stage is a floating
mouth.

"In what was surely a conscious decision by Mr.
Beckett, the white, uniform, non-ruled pages, which
symbolize the starkness and emptiness of life, were
left unbound, unmarked, and untouched," said Trinity
College professor of Irish literature Fintan
O'Donoghue. "And, as if to further exemplify the
anonymity and facelessness of 20th-century man, they
were found, of all places, between other sheets of
paper."

"I can only conclude that we have stumbled upon
something quite remarkable," O'Donoghue added.

According to literary critic Eric Matheson, who
praised the work for "the bare-bones structure and
bleak repetition of what can only be described as
'nothingness,'" the play represents somewhat of a
departure from the works of Beckett's "middle period."
But, he said, it "might as well be Samuel Beckett at
his finest."

"It does feature certain classic Beckett elements,
such as sparse stage directions, a mysterious quality
of anonymity, a slow building of tension with no
promise of relief, and an austere portrayal of the
human condition," Matheson said. "But Beckett's
traditional intimation of an unrelenting will to live,
the possibility of escape from the vacuous
indifference that surrounds us—that's missing. Were
that his vision, I suspect he would have used
perforated paper."

Scholars theorize that the 23-page play might have
been intended to be titled Five Conversations,
Entropolis, or Stop.

In addition, an 81-page document, also blank, was
found, which, for all intents and purposes, could be
an earlier draft of the work.

"I suspect this was a nascent stream-of-consciousness
attempt," O'Donoghue said of the blank sheets of
paper, which were found scattered among Beckett's
personal effects and took a Beckett scholar four
painstaking days to put into the correct order. "In
his final version, Beckett used his trademark style of
'paring down' to really get at the core of what he was
trying to not say."

Some historians, however, contend that the play could
have been the work of one of Beckett's protégés.

"Even though the central theme and wicked sense of
humor of this piece would lead one to believe that
this could conceivably be a vintage Beckett play, in
reality, it could just as easily have been the product
of [Beckett's close friend] Rick Cluchey," biographer
Neal Gleason said. "And if it was Beckett, it's not
outside the realm of possibility that, given his sharp
wit, it was just intended as a joke. If Beckett were
alive today, he might insist that it's not even a play
at all. It could be a novella, or a screenplay."

Enthusiasts still maintain that the "nuances,
subtleties, and allusions to his previous works" are
all unmistakably Beckett. They also claim to have
found notes and ideas for this play in the margins of
Beckett's earlier works.

There are already plans to stage the play during the
intermission of an upcoming production of Waiting For
Godot.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/47722

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