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Ready For Beckett

Simon Eales

Irish Actor Lisa Dwan Claims Her Approach To Beckett Is Current

The Irish actor, Lisa Dwan’s association with the absurdist Samuel Beckett’s short pieces written in the 1970s for his muse, Billie Whitelaw, extends back to when she played Not I in 2005.
 
A couple of years later, she began performing Not I alongside Beckett’s other pieces for Whitelaw, Footfalls and Rockaby, and has been touring them since. This February, Perth audiences have the chance to experience Dwan in these famously surreal and minimalistic mini-masterpieces.

Dwan suggests it’s perhaps not so remarkable these productions have been so well received. “I think people are ready for Beckett today, and I think the way I approach Beckett is very current and real. I am trying to inject more urgency into the work and make it pertinent.” The unfettered critical acclaim suggests Dwan delivers what Beckett demands: verbal precision, physical discipline and presence, and a profound connection to the existential nature of his subject matter.

"Beckett isn’t preaching, he’s not trying to sell us anything and he doesn’t have an agenda. But he is inviting us to bring our own experiences."

No doubt Whitelaw’s presence is inextricable from the power of these works. As is classically the case with the figure of the muse, the artwork inspired by her could not exist without her. It’s a complex situation for Dwan. “My job is not to let the ‘Billie Whitelaw effect’ affect me. My job is to let that work resonate on stage. What happens in every performance has to be real.

“In order for this work to work, I have to use my own narrative and my own story. Beckett isn’t preaching, he’s not trying to sell us anything and he doesn’t have an agenda. But he is inviting us to bring our own experiences. That’s the scope he gives us. In order for that to resonate, I have to be deeply honest and personal.”

For Dwan, this process of carving a unique mark within the Beckett tradition involves a rigorous communion with the text. “I don’t mind surrendering in the way I do, and being as open in this role as I can be, because I know that if I’m not too indulgent it can work. I know that if it doesn’t work, I’m the problem, not Beckett,” she laughs.

This production of the triptych is a schools edition, allowing young people the chance to enhance their study of these texts with a world-class theatre experience. “You get so used to being pacified as an adolescent and, quite frankly, at a time when political and religious institutions are failing us, here is somebody that is not leading us up the garden path. Beckett doesn’t give a bollock, actually, whether we subscribe to him or not. As a result, what we are drawn to is his profound poetry.”