Usher Nonsense #9
Becket and Albee - Century Center Theatre
I saw Joseph Chaikin in Beckett's "Text for Nothing" a few years ago, I saw "Gogot" with
Robin Williams and Steve Martin, and I also saw two Beckett productions with Robin Gamal
and directed by Andrew Robinson in L.A. So maybe I'm spoiled.
In these two productions Marian Seldes and Brian Murray keep checking in with the
audience to see if we get it. You don't "get" Beckett. You climb inside and buckle your seat
belt. Beckett is best lightly tossed with oil and eaten right away. Murray and Seldes
hammer all the air out of the words before they serve them up. Makes for a flat meal.
The Albee piece is supposed to be satire - a series of tiny little vignettes about a marriage
falling falling falling apart. Sort of a Jules Feiffer couple come alive. But the performers
seemed more interested in being watched than in being alive and in the moment. So the text
never had a chance.
Beautiful theatre though, and fabulous set by Catherine Zuber.
© 2003 by Tulis McCall
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