Abby Hildebrand TRDA Evening of Beckett Critique April 15, 2010 An Evening of Becketton Sunday, April 4 th at 2 p.m. started out great. It was a series of short plays by Irish play write Samuel Beckett. Act I had four scenes, all ofwhich were very different. Act II was structured in the same manner, and both acts began with silent scenes. While the first act was interesting, bizarre, and off-putting all at the same time, it was able to hold my attention. The acting was not profound orgroundbreaking, but good enough. The second act, however, was also bizarre and off- putting but not in a good way. Whether it was the acting (or lack thereof) or the scenes themselves, I cannot say. In any case, the second act not only failed to impress me, but also left me feeling confused and wondering why in the world I spent my Sunday afternoon in a dark, misty theater on such a beautiful day. Upon entering Betts Theater, a cloud of mist and dim lights greeted audience members. The sparse stage loomed before us, empty and black. A man enteredstage right, stumbling as if he were shoved. After a few minut es of this, the audience reali zes that this man is a bit slow to make connections that we had already made. His costume lends itself to this idea since it was very basic, plain, and old. The stage too is very simple; the only props are a tree, bucket hanging from the ceiling, and a few black cubes. As the man tries various ways to get the water bucket that is out of his reach, he slowly figures out how to solve problems. The majorconflict is between the man and a force we
