As I've been reading Molloy, I've been thinking about Beckett's relationship to the body. In the limited scope of things I've read, Beckett seems fixated on bodily functions. His characters' excretions and cruder urges interrupt (or penetrate, yuk yuk) the text for me: from nowhere, Hamm will need to piss or start pissing; Molloy will recall his May-December deflowering; Malone is voiding his son's sparse excrement. He takes a childish delight in these interruptions, like he's saying, "Tee hee, poop, tee hee."
But he's also obsessed with how bodies fall apart and fail us. There's always some kind of difficulty or dysfunction with Beckett's bodily functions. Thus far, no one ever poops correctly or pees with ease, not to mention sleep. The most pronounced failure for me is the decay of mobility. Malloy goes through a complete breakdown of mobility as he wanders through the forest: in a sort of reverse Sphinx's riddle, he goes from one good leg, one bad; to two bad legs; to no legs, walking with his hands and tools. Still, though, he moves with an intense purpose. No matter how difficult his mobility is, he sets into it with... not a passion, but with a drive. He drags himself across the forest floor, grunting, "Mother," along the way. But he doesn't seem particularly happy when he gets closer to his goal.
Does anybody have crutches I can borrow and play with? I'm thinking about trying to mimic or work through Malloy's decay. I'm worried I don't have the upper body strength for his trek through the forest, though, so if worse comes to worst I'll play with Malone's "touch of neuralgia" after he's left home. In either case, I think Beckett's relationship to the body (his body?) is something I'm interested in exploring further.
Hi Erin-
ReplyDeleteI'm really intrigued by your observations. If you've ever read any Joyce (especially Ulysses), there is a similar sort of fascination with the body, especially the body as a means of disgusting communication. (Leopold Bloom, the main character of Ulysses, is first described through his repulsive appetite: "Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liver slices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencod's roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine." - I know I'm digressing a lot here, but I really love this line.)
I was thinking that if you weren't able to pull together the crutches for your act, maybe you could think of ways that your body could repulse an audience. What are unnatural (or perhaps "too natural") movements or processes that could be brought forth that could provoke a similar reaction as decay? How is it that our most natural functions - death, urinating, defecating - are seen as the strangest?
Just some thoughts! I really like your ideas here.
- Sarah
Woah, Sarah, your suggestion totally changed how I was thinking about the project. I was looking at this as a way of making Beckett's text physical; maybe I should be focusing more on understanding Beckett's text thematically by situating it physically within me? I really like the idea of finding a natural process in my body and making it unnatural or repulsive. Something to play with.
ReplyDeleteIf you're still looking for crutches, you might try the health center or the gym. I don't think we have any in the props room, but you could also try Amy Radbill, our production manager: aradbillATbrynmawrDOTedu.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by the ways that your observations will facilitate performance.
Although I note that, at least by his own math, Molloy's farting seems to be fully functional and well within the bounds of what he (for one, and perhaps only one) finds "normal."
My performance is unofficially titled de-evolution because it plays on the physical breakdown of bodies, which is my big takeaway from Molloy, so I'm glad others are exploring it as well. I think that Sarah's suggestion would be really interesting to watch and experience as an audience member. I know this is late but you could use baggage to represent the burden that falls upon bodies as they fall apart. I think that adding baggage brings one lower and lower which an audience can relate to visually.
ReplyDeleteI keep picturing sisyphus with the bolder on his back