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Transcript of Samuel Beckett: a Conversation, with Ian Rickson, and Mark Taylor-Batty, at the Minghella Building, University of Reading, October 3Rd 2013, 7.30Pm

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Transcript of Samuel Beckett: a Conversation, with Ian Rickson, and Mark Taylor-Batty, at the Minghella Building, University of Reading, October 3Rd 2013, 7.30Pm Transcript of Samuel Beckett: A Conversation, with Ian Rickson, and Mark Taylor-Batty, at the Minghella Building, University of Reading, October 3rd 2013, 7.30pm. Please note that this transcript has been lightly edited by Anna McMullan, Ian Rickson, and Mark Taylor-Batty. Welcome and Introduction by Sir David Bell, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading. My name is David Bell and I am the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this event this evening and to those of you who are visiting the university for the very first time, a special welcome. We are celebrating both the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Beckett International Foundation and the launch of a new Beckett research project. Although I promise not to keep you too long this evening because you are all eagerly waiting the main event I think it is just important to spend a moment or two describing a little bit about our Beckett history, decidedly one of the most significant jewels in the University's crown, our Beckett archive, itself set up in 1971. I guess that was the first step in the beginning of our now proud and internationally renowned presence in the Beckett world. Now the world's largest collection of resources related to Samuel Beckett, this archive is recognised as being of national and international importance by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. It was created by a small team of passionate Beckett scholars; spear-headed, I think it's fair to say, by the now Emeritus Professor James Knowlson and Jim is here this evening with us. Its success, in Jim's own words, was done to co-operation and collaboration as well as love and enthusiasm with a small amount of bare-faced cheek thrown in for good measure. Of course, more than anything else, the friendship and support from Samuel Beckett himself was our most important asset. His patronage and generosity, donating many of the items in the Collection, made ours a very special archive indeed. Our scholarly pursuit of all things Beckett continues and perhaps not surprisingly the Collection grew from year to year but it wasn't until 1988 that the Charitable Trust that is the Beckett International Foundation was established. Although just a year before his death, and at the age of 82, Beckett supported the founding of the Trust with its mission to further the study and appreciation of the work of Samuel Beckett. We have, of course, an ever-growing team of established and emerging Beckett scholars. They work in close collaboration with a star-studded patron list of Beckett lovers from the literary and theatre worlds, and again, the unstinting support of the Beckett family. The Beckett International Foundation at the University of Reading 1 really is a wonderful legacy celebrating the life and work of one of the 20th century’s most influential, artistic and creative minds. So we’ve come a very long way from when that small band of enthusiasts first put Reading on the map with Beckett Studies. It’s a great opportunity tonight to have a further conversation about Samuel Beckett and his work, but there's another reason to be here tonight: Staging Beckett is an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project at the University, here at Reading, in collaboration with the University of Chester and the Victoria and Albert museum. This project is designed to develop the world's first comprehensive database of productions of Beckett's plays in the U.K and Ireland. It will be examining the role of Beckett in shaping modern theatre practice in the U.K and Ireland, and this project will enable a unique picture of British and Irish theatres to emerge through their approaches to staging Beckett. So another exciting step in this exciting field of Beckett Studies. That is more than enough from me so I am delighted to introduce our speakers this evening. Acclaimed theatre director and former Artistic Director of the Royal Court, Ian Rickson, who himself staged Beckett, working with Harold Pinter on Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape at the Royal Court Theatre in 2006 and then on TV with the BBC. Dr. Mark Taylor-Batty is a leading expert on the careers in theatre of both Pinter and Beckett. What better combination could we have, ladies and gentlemen, to explore the challenges of bringing the work of Samuel Beckett to life on stage. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Ian Rickson and Mark Taylor-Batty. (claps) Taylor-Batty: Thank you, thank you for that welcome. We're here tonight to talk mostly about this fabulous production of Krapp's Last Tape and there is a magnificent picture of that [of Harold Pinter in Krapp’s Last Tape, photographed by John Haynes, projected behind the speakers] to upstage us. Rickson: John Haynes, you may know, the photographer of many, many plays, really changed the way we see theatre and I think he drew so much from Beckettian sensibility because many theatre photographs before John Haynes were set up, broadly lit, shots of people in relationship and that's absolutely fine, but John was the first to really embrace the void and the darkness, with figures in a kind of Rembrandt- like, palpable presence. John had retired, I think, maybe ten years before we did Krapp's Last Tape but I was thrilled, as was Harold, that he photographed it and it 2 looks pretty good, the photograph. Taylor-Batty: Yes, Harold wasn't the only one to come out of retirement for that photo in fact. Rickson: Yes, yes. It was a kind of farewell for him. Taylor-Batty: I thought we might start by talking a little bit about your relationship with Harold just as a kind of context for that production. And if I understand, the first piece of theatre you ever saw was a piece by Harold Pinter. Is that right? Rickson: Yes. My family weren't theatre-goers but they liked Max Wall who had already played Krapp at the Riverside. Max Wall was at our local Greenwich Theatre doing The Caretaker and so we were all taken along - I would have been twelve I think, thirteen - because of Max Wall. I remember not laughing and particularly the kind of dark, melancholy, mad quality of the play and being really affected by it - particularly the speech about electric shock treatment. I didn't yet know that my Mum's mum had had electric shock treatment and there was something very profound about seeing it as a first play. So that was my first encounter with Harold. Then when I ran the Royal Court I found him a very generous mentor and he kept an eye on me. I asked him to direct quite a few plays which he didn't do but we produced Mountain Language, and Ashes to Ashes. He was very warm and fascinated in the international side of the Royal Court. I interviewed him a number of times and I think powerful people like that can have an aura around them of being kind of frightening and aggressive but that's as much about what we project onto them. I found that if you related to Harold quite directly and you didn't - well I was going to say you didn't flatter him - but you did have to flatter him to a point (and then make it go a point further), but on the other hand, you had to be robust with him and challenge him - I think he liked that. So that's how I got to know him. Taylor-Batty: So your first professional relationship with him, was it that production of Mountain Language or was it earlier? Rickson: Yes. He’d directed a play called Oleanna [by David Mamet] when I was at the Royal Court, but not running it, and then Katie Mitchell directed Ashes to Ashes and Mountain Language. Then I really got to work with him on this although I've directed lots of his plays. 3 Taylor-Batty: I was going to ask you, you made your name at the Royal Court as Artistic Director, and indeed before that, doing what the Royal Court is famous for - supporting emerging new writing - and your relationship with that work was at the centre of your profile. I remember in an interview with you earlier on in the last decade when you said you'd never directed any classics and since then you've had Pinter, Beckett, Chekhov, Shakespeare. If you're going to do the classics they are the ones to start with. What was it that made you migrate towards people like Beckett and Pinter? Rickson: Well, initially it was the Royal Court's fiftieth anniversary, and the question was how could we celebrate the unique identity of the English Stage Company and Jocelyn Herbert [stage designer and major presence at the Royal Court until her death in 2003]. Bill Gaskell offered a production of a James Joyce play. I thought we could map out a theatre lineage of Joyce, Beckett and Pinter, because when you read lots of plays you realise how influential that tributary is for writers, but in the end due to rights and other complicated things, it felt really exciting to do Krapp's Last Tape and celebrate that part of the theatre's history. And yes, it was the first ‘old’ play I ever directed. I think when you leave a theatre like the Royal Court it's hard to find good new plays - if you're running a new playwriting theatre you can choose the best plays – and so there's a kind of logic as a freelancer to doing classics.
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