Fidelity and Betrayal: Reflections on a Staging of Samuel Beckett

Abstract

Is it possible that a movement so corrosive and evanescent as the one contrived by Beckett could have become a canon? What does it mean? Is it something to be desired? If it is a canon, what sort of fidelity does it entreat? To which paradigm or value does it owe its strength? What constitutes its betrayal and from what perspective can it be considered as such? And as a necessary inference, to what extent can or should the translation of a dramatic text into a staging become a betrayal? The possibility that the transmutation to stage language of a text could or should be considered a betrayal of its original source has, in Beckett’s work, a particular interest due to the great tension that this topic has brought about both in the theoretical and in the dramatic aspects because of the exaggerated zeal of the holders of its legal rights. Through the careful analysis of Beckett’s stylistic uniqueness and his philosophical thesis, I ponder about the legitimacy of said zeal, and I question its relevance using the example of a particular staging of the short story “First Love”. This paper tries to show the distortions that take place when following an aesthetic canon unrestrictedly. It is also a thorough description of some of the processes required in a staging.