The works of Samuel Beckett are strange and can instantly carry with them the daunting presence typically associated with stuffy, thoroughly enigmatic and academic works of literature. But to dismiss his works as only this would do them a severe injustice. At their core is a voice that is often humorous and insightful, which carries the potential to reshape the lives of those who give it a chance.
For an example of this, look no further than the troupe of thespians behind this year’s Beckett 16, a group of people whose annual performances amount to a deeply personal labour of passion, rather than a simple rendition. The group consists of UBC alumni who collectively began rehearsing for the play some time in January, meeting several times a week to prepare.
Amongst those involved in the production are Deb Pickman, who is the communications and marketing manager for the Arts and Culture District, and Gerald Vanderwoude, who is assistant dean of facilities and human resources in the arts faculty. Pickman will be performing several roles throughout the show, while Vanderwoude directs.
The performance runs approximately 45 minutes and is comprised of a series of scenes, each of which is around five minutes in length. Some of them are Beckett’s prose while others are, as Pickman put it, “devised theatre that’s brought forth in the same spirit as Beckett.”
“I think it's a fantastic entré for someone that's never seen him before,” said Pickman.
She was first introduced to Beckett when she was a theatre student. One of the first auditions that she did was to Beckett’s Footfalls,“which is ridiculous and I would highly not recommend that anybody perform Beckett at an audition, but one of the really best first roles that ever I got … I got from the pieces I did. So that's the kind of faith I had in it.”
Deb will be performing alongside Beverly Bardal, with whom she attended theatre school, in a scene that places both of them in a boat as they enact a different piece of Beckett prose. It is a piece that they have been performing together now for four years.
In the production of Beckett 16,a sense of friendship and camaraderie permeates every detail. This is a group of friends, passionate about the prose, the craft and the process as well as just the sheer enjoyment of it all.
“It's super fun,” said Pickman. “It's what like bowling must have been to some people in the ’60s. You get together with your buddies and your bowling ball, and you go out and you throw a few balls and have some beers.”
Permeating the works of Beckett is an existentialist eye for the world, whose plots tend to be as befuddling and sometimes unsettling as the world itself. “Although it doesn't sound like fun — a look into the abyss — it's incredibly uplifting in a perverse way,” said Pickman.
“Once I started thinking about Beckett and the relevance for this time of year and what I like about it, I thought about Halloween and they say it's that time when the veil is thinnest between the afterlife — if you believe in these things — and the other world and the physical world. And Beckett is such a great meditation on that and theatre itself. You know, it lives and we play these characters for an hour and then they're gone, and every night is different.”
There is one life in particular who has influenced this production and it is that of the late Peter Loeffler. He began teaching theatre history at UBC in 1972. He became known for taking students from other fields and bringing them over into the theatre department, with his passion and love for the subject. He was a person who affected each of those involved with Beckett 16 in different ways, but his relationship with the show’s director, Gerald Vanderwoude, stands out as something particularly special.
During his time as an MFA student in directing, Vanderwoude spent the better part of his nights and days in the theatre building, where he would build sets and do school work into the late hours of the night and then sleep wherever he could, dodging security guards all the while.
Loeffler was one of the first to discover what Vanderwoude was up to and this became the foundation of what would be a long friendship. They would spend the early hours of the morning drinking tea and reading the paper together in the silent theatre building, before Vanderwoude would head to his job at Blue Chip Cookies to begin baking the morning batches.
A little while into their friendship, Loeffler approached Vanderwoude at the box office where he was working, peeled off five $100 bills and said, “Mr. Vanderwoude I think you should do a night of Beckett! A short night of Beckett and make it a celebration!”
And thus, The Beckett Birthday Bash started. It began as an annual, one night only show on Beckett’s birthday and was successful enough to be followed by five subsequent shows in the following years. The last followed the untimely death of Loeffler to cancer in 2002. After his death, the group of actors went off and worked on other projects until they eventually decided to return to Beckett.
In preparing for Beckett 16, performers worked with current UBC students to provide practical experience and mentorship in producing and acting in a show. The production also features the talents of 91-year-old Norman Young, a legendary BC theatre figure who was trained by Dorothy Somerset. In a way, this puts the whole history of UBC theatre — past, present and future — into Beckett 16. The skills and passion passed on through generations of students by a shared love for literature is a theme that defines not only this play, but also the experience of university itself.
“All of us that are in it have experienced Peter and his love for theatre in general and Beckett in particular,” said Pickman. “They talk about ghosts in the theatre, definitely we ... feel his presence.”
Beckett 16 runs from November 3 to 5 at the Frederic Wood Theatre. All profits from this production will go to benefit The Peter Loeffler Memorial Prize. Tickets are available here.