Beckett's Centenary: Revisiting a Legacy [11min]

Samuel Beckett's legacy skips from continent to continent. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, where he became an assistant and friend to James Joyce; made Paris his adopted home, and French an adopted language; and later turned the London and New York theater scenes upside down with his absurdist play Waiting for Godot. As the centenary of Beckett's birth approaches this week, remembrances and performances of his work are under way. In addition to plays such as Godot, Krapp's Last Tape and Endgame, Beckett wrote novels, essays and poetry, as well. Beckett's plays are sometimes characterized as desperate or depressing. But biographer Richard Ellman wrote that, in stripping away the niceties of life and the filigrees of traditional theatre, Samuel Beckett entered the real territory of God -- not of his plenty, but his paucity, where nothing is left but the elemental grief and joy of being alive. ... Visit website for longer story, book excerpt, audio clips.