Audio-Visual Beckett: Forgotten Gems from the Beckett Collection

Written by Dr Lucy Jeffery, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Samuel Beckett Research Centre

When we think of Samuel Beckett and an audio-visual collection, Shades for âThe Lively Artsâ series, broadcast on Sunday 17 April 1977 on BBC 2, comes to mind. And yes, Ghost Trio, âŠbut the cloudsâŠ, and Not I are all worth watching, but there are lots more hidden gems in the University of Readingâs Special Collections archive. For example, in one of the many boxes of VHS recordings, youâll find Eh Joe. I donât mean the Eh Joe with Jack MacGowran which was first broadcast on BBC 2 on 4 July 1966. Nor do I mean Elmar and Erika Tophovenâs German translation, He Joe (which was actually the first version to be televised on SDR to mark Beckettâs 60th birthday). No, I mean David Clarkâs 1972 version with Patrick Magee and Elvi Hale, filmed at the University of Londonâs Audio-Visual Centre. This production is in colour, the curtains over the windows and door are red, and Joe is wearing a dark, chequered dressing gown!
For film lovers, the archive not only has Alan Schneiderâs Film with Buster Keaton from 1965, but also David Clarkâs 1979 full colour and sound version with Max Wall. This extraordinary recording takes a completely different approach to the original, and is well worth checking out. You can even look at Beckettâs mustard yellow âFilmâ notebook (BC MS 1227/7/6/1) with his initial notes and diagrams, dated 5 April 1963.
Radio heads (no pun intended), you can hear Morton Feldman talking about how he and Beckett both hated opera in the introduction to Samuel Beckett: Words and Music, directed and produced by Everett Frost for the Beckett Festival of Radio Plays (first broadcast on NPR in the US on 13 April 1988). This series of Beckettâs radio drama also includes interviews with scholars such as Linda Ben-Zvi and Ruby Cohn.
The Reading archive contains a wealth of theatre materials. Not only does it hold several of Beckettâs production notebooks, Billie Whitelawâs wonderfully colourful script for Not I, and Peter Snowâs model box for Peter Hallâs 1955 production of Waiting for Godot, but there are several video recordings of Beckett productions. Billie Whitelawâs 1979 revival of Winnie with Leonard Fenton at the Royal Court (directed by Beckett) sits alongside a Czech production of Konec hry (Endgame) directed by Jan NebeskĂœ, performed at the Komora Divadla Komedie, Prague in 1998. If itâs Czech productions youâre interested in, the interview with Vaclav Havel, for whom Beckett wrote Catastrophe, would be unmissable. A great afternoon can be spent watching a production whilst leafing through the programmes and notebooks from the stage files in the collection.

Even if youâre not a Beckettian and youâre just curious about the man himself, you can listen to Dr Geoffrey Thompson talk about his lifelong friendship with Beckett which started when they were teens at Portora Royal School. Thompson describes them reciting Keats and playing a game of chess in their minds as they went for walks together in Dublin. He then talks about the psychotherapy Beckett received in London, his connection with James Joyce in Paris, the challenges he faced during the war, and how his work is concerned with disability and immobility. There are also lots of wonderful documentaries on Beckettâs life and work, such as A Wake for Sam, first broadcast on the BBC during January 1990.
Having tempted you with footage of Beckettâs drama, film, and life, an overview of the Beckett audio-visual collection wouldnât be complete without talking about Billie Whitelaw; the actor synonymous with Beckettâs drama. After a few hours spent watching Billie talk about and perform Beckettâs demanding roles, her directness and devotedness to the work becomes almost palpable. Itâs amazing how sitting in the Special Collections reading room with the headphones on creates a direct connection with such a seemingly untouchable figure (Iâm even calling her âBillieâ!). One of my favourite cassettes is of Billie in conversation at a symposium at the University of Reading on 3 May 1994. She talks about Beckettâs insistence on the exact rhythms of her speech and the sheer difficulty of learning her part for Winnie in Happy Days. And she often breaks into freestyle, ad hoc performances! In another cassette from a chaired discussion at Reading, you can hear Beckettâs scenographer, Jocelyn Herbert, talk about how she came up with the idea for Billieâs costume for Footfalls (an item the collection also holds). There is even a documentary that follows Alan Schneider as he visits Billie Whitelaw at her home. This is their first meeting! The camera invites us to watch their conversations about and rehearsals for Rockaby, which later opened on 8 April 1981 at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Above all, the best find has to be a cassette recording of Beckettâs own voice as he reads from Lessness, one of those impenetrable prose fragments. To hear Beckettâs soft, hushed voice recite the story whilst he taps out the rhythm of the piece with a pencil on a table top (as James Knowlson later told me) is an unforgettable moment for any Beckett enthusiast and researcher. Itâs a moment when the archive really brings the work alive.
I have learnt so much about Beckettâs life, process, and collaboration with directors, actors, set designers (the list goes onâŠ) as Iâve listened to the huge range of readings, radio drama, documentaries, and interviews at the Beckett Collection. Itâs a real treat to both hear discussions and productions of Beckettâs work and examine his notebooks and typescripts. After going through the materials one by one, Iâve now written detailed descriptions of what you will find on the cassettes, DVDs, and VHS recordings. Iâve also cross-referenced these recordings with other items in the Beckett Collection so that you can investigate further connections throughout the archive. Iâve had a blast â I hope you will too.