MEANINGLESS DRAMA. I am surprised to see that Albee and Stoppard are considered by Ben Brantley to be descendants of Beckett. I think that Becket pretty much fully explored and exhausted his vision and left little for followers to say—if only because there is nothing to say. If words are meaningless, if communication is impossible and if modern drama consists only of footnotes to Beckett, one of the messages of modern drama must be the futility of modern drama. Imagine how disheartening it is for the theater goers who settle into their seats to know that they will be confronted with yet another demonstration that words—and the words they will be hearing for the next couple hours–are inadequate to communicate.
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Beckett is so boring to me and so obvious, however much he may have been a profound pioneer in his time, that the only thing that makes me consider for a moment there may be something in him that I’m missing, is that I have a very smart friend who reveres him. Even then, the thought of sitting in a theater and ENJOYING Beckett is beyond my capacity to imagine. Albee, however, and Stoppard in particular, render peculiar intellectual and visceral delights. Not all of Albee. Not even all of Stoppard, perhaps (I never “got” The Real Thing). But to lump them with Beckett into the realm of absurdist negation–why, that’s just not good criticism. In my humble opinion. I have had the great pleasure and honor of seeing all three parts of “Coast of Utopia.” I think some intellectuals thought they could distinguish themselves by dismissing this great theatrical achievement. But they simply singled themselves out as petty and unreceptive. There, I’ve said it.