Book description
This new edition brings together all of Beckett's dramatic writings
for radio, television and film, offering works which range from
eloquent comic naturalism to an eviscerated and pared-down symbolism.
Above all, Beckett found his unique uses for the radio-play, a medium
'for voices not bodies', compacted of speech, sound and silence - and
the plays in this volume intently explore the resources and limits of
the sound-stage. My father, back from the dead, to be with me.
(Pause.) As if he hadn't died. (Pause.) No, simply back from the dead,
to be with me, in this strange place. (Pause.) Can he hear me?
(Pause.) Yes, he must hear me. (Pause.) To answer me? (Pause.) No, he
doesn't answer me. (Pause.) Just be with me. (Pause.) That sound you
hear is the sea. (Pause. Louder.) I say that sound you hear is the
sea, we are sitting on the strand. (Pause.) I mention it because the
sound is so strange, so unlike the sound of the sea, that if you
didn't see what it was you wouldn't know what it was. (Pause.).
Hooves! Contents: All That Fall, Embers, Words and Music, Eh Joe,
Quad, Film, ...but the clouds..., Ghost Trio, Nacht und Träume, Rough
for Radio I, Rough for Radio II, Cascando, The Old Tune Preface and
Notes by Everett Frost
Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin in 1906. He was educated at Portora
Royal School and Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1927.
His made his poetry debut in 1930 with Whoroscope and followed it with
essays and two novels before World War Two. He wrote one of his most
famous plays, Waiting for Godot, in 1949 but it wasn't published in
English until 1954. Waiting for Godot brought Beckett international fame
and firmly established him as a leading figure in the Theatre of the
Absurd. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961. Beckett
continued to write prolifically for radio, TV and the theatre until his
death in 1989.
