Some Slow Going: Considering Beckett and Goat Island

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Notes

¹I am indebted to Steven Connor's article ‘Slow Going’ for illuminating thoughts on temporality in Beckett's work, written and presented at the Critical Beckett conference, School of French Studies, University of Birmingham, 26 September 1998.

²Noted by Bryan Saner in his contribution, Interior Eye, in Part 2 of the reading companion that accompanied the show (Frakcija 2005).

³Numerous instructions and directives used by Goat Island in the devising and rehearsal processes for each of their shows are recorded in the series of prepared books and reading companions that accompany each new piece, as well as in publications in conjunction with some of their Summer Schools. These directives are taken from the handbook for It's Shifting, Hank (1994) and the reading companion for It's an Earthquake in my Heart (2001).

⁴Throughout this article I refer to Beckett's play and to a short documentary film that informally follows the rehearsals for that famous production and the world premiere of Rockaby – A Play by Samuel Beckett, filmed by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker. This production went on to be performed at La Mamma Annex in New York, at the State University of New York at Purchase, and, in December of 1982, at the Cottesloe, Royal National heatre, London.

⁵In interview, 22 January 2007. BBC Radio 4, Start the Week.

⁶In everyday usage, the German term verfallen also means dilapidated, to decay, to decompose, to expire, but also ‘to allow for an option to collapse’. These implications contribute an interesting cluster of meanings to the context of this discussion.

⁷The dance comes after a seated prolegomenon, in which three performers earnestly discuss the life and naming of an imagined frog-son.

⁸For an extended discussion, see Chapter 3, ‘What is a Minor Literature?’ in Deleuze and Guattari (1996: 16–27).

⁹Redundancy has two basic meanings. The first and perhaps most common refers to the state or fact of no longer being needed or wanted, the loss of functional purpose designated an object or person. In a more technical semantic field, in electronics or telecommunications for example, redundancy implies the duplication of information in order to reduce the risk of error. In this sense, it refers to a ‘backup system’ designed to come into use in order to keep equipment working if counterparts fail. This assigns an antinomial meaning to the first use of the term, imbuing the redundant with the capacity to restore functional purpose to a system, thing, or individual. This second meaning is especially compelling in the context of Goat Island's work.