Beckett estate squashes Oberlin coeds' plan to conjure up Godot

[jserraglio]

Apparently, only those sporting prostates, be they Irish or not, need apply.

https://oberlinreview.org/19883/arts/al ... tive-rage/

[John F]

Doing "Godot" with a female cast does as much damage to the play as doing "Happy Days" with only men. Beckett knew the difference between men and women if the Oberlin theatre department didn't.

It's doubtless unfortunate that especially in older plays, the number and importance of womens' roles is smaller than we might wish.The answer to this, unfortunately, is not for Sarah Bernhardt to play Hamlet or Glenda Jackson to be Lear, but to choose differently balanced plays. There are plenty of these from the 19th and 20th centuries.

[jserraglio]

If Janet Baker can impersonate Julius Caesar convincingly on stage ... well then, to each artist her (or his) own gonad. Beckett and his estate are entitled to ritually purify WFG of every ovary, but it took only an Oberlin minute for the college to replace Beckett's with another play.

I recall reading someplace that Beckett once told players rehearsing WFG to adapt his lines as they saw fit, since it wasn't all that great a play to start with. If he actually said that and meant it, it shows just how insightful he could be about his own work.