Two River Theater is presenting Tony Award-winning actor, master clown and dancer Bill Irwin in his one-man show On Beckett, running December 7 through December 10 on the Joan and Robert M. Rechnitz stage.
Audiences around the country have been raving about watching Irwin perform and dance to the beautiful words of Irish novelist Samuel Beckett.
Irwin spoke with WBGO News Director Doug Doyle about the show and his career. The titan of the stage says he's always a love and hate relationship with the language of Beckett.
"His language haunts and I do enjoy it most of the time. He will not leave my brain. When I read his writing, it tends to stay with me. It's easier to memorize than other texts I've encountered as an actor. He's more and more central in our culture now. The first thing I ever read of his was a little play Act Without Words. I just happend upon it while I was a freshman at UCLA. What stayed with me was the way he used language in what we would call stage directions. The way he described what an actor ought to do because in this short play there is no dialogue. It stayed with me. It's not my favorite play now. I don't think it's one of strongest pieces of Mr. Beckett's writing but it was the first thing that came across my radar and have never forgotten the way he describes movement."
Movement has always been a part of Bill Irwin. He's been delighting audiences for many years as a master clown. Irwin says audiences get something different from him each evening of On Beckett.
"This is a personal evening where I look at the material anew every night an invite the audience to join me in looking at this playwright's use of language.
Irwin’s approach to the comic, the tragic, to every side of Beckett’s work – including Waiting for Godot, Texts for Nothing, and more– allows theater goers to experience the Nobel Prize writer's language in compelling new ways.
Irwin says Beckett and his family also enjoyed baggy pants comedy and often went to the variety theatre. Bill's favorite clown was Buster Keaton.
"He (Buster Keaton) was also Samuel Beckett admired. Buster Keaton is somebody who I think just came at an amazing time in history. He was the best actor, the best director and the best acrobat in American cinema at the time he was doing his work and that's a weird combination."
During the interview, host Doug Doyle asks Irwin to talk about some of the roles Bill has played in movies, including "Lou Lou Who" in The Grinch That Stole Christmas and baseball Hall of Famer "Eddie Collins" in Eight Men Out.
You can SEE the entire interview with Bill Irwin here.
