ENG544: Samuel Beckett

Knowlson, James. "Beckett, Samuel Barclay (1906–1989), author." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. January 09, 2014. Oxford University Press.

"The elusive author of Waiting for Godot cooperated in the production of this portrait, which traces Beckett’s artistic life through his prose, plays, and poetry. Billie Whitelaw, Jack McGowran, and Patrick Magee—Beckett’s great dramatic interpreters—appear in selected extracts from the plays; Beckett specialist David Warrilow narrates a variety of texts."(79 minutes)

"The life of Irish novelist, poet, and playwright Samuel Beckett is profiled in this two-part documentary: from his Dublin childhood, to his days in Paris, associating with Picasso and Chagall, to old age. Excerpts from a performance of the semiautobiographical Krapp’s Last Tape and previously unpublished letters tell the story, along with the remembrances of Beckett’s lifelong friend and publisher, Jerome Lindon, relatives, and others who knew him. This is a rare glimpse into the reclusive world of this literary giant, whose most famous work, Waiting for Godot, evokes with unnerving precision the cosmic despair and isolation of modern humankind." A BBC Production. (1 hour 46 minutes)

Notfilm is a 2015 feature-length documentary, directed by Ross Lipman on the production of playwright Samuel Beckett's only film, an experimental short titled Film starring Buster Keaton. (2 hours, 9 min)

Waiting for Godot, 1961, 104 minutes. Written by Samuel Beckett. Directed by Alan Schneider for "Play of the Week". Starring Zero Mostel and Burgess Meredith. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Sirs Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart sat with the Wall Street Journal's Barbara Chai to discuss performing "Waiting for Godot" and "No Man's Land" on Broadway, Samuel Beckett's humor, and how each actor feeds off the other.

This eight-part documentary series goes back stage to cover six months in the life of London's Theater Royal Haymarket from all angles, including the arrival of new artistic director Sean Mathias and the lead up to his production of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” starring Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. In the first episode, preparations begin on “Waiting for Godot.” Other episodes of this documentary also available in Classroom Video on Demand.

Part of the film Theatre in the Modern World --
Critics debate Samuel Beckett's categorization as "absurdist." Though he, himself, rejected the label, his work does explore themes of meaning and and the absence of meaning. "Waiting for Godot" embraces skepticism.

written by Samuel Beckett, 1906-1989; directed by Alan Schneider, 1917-1984; produced by H. B. Lutz, fl. 1960-1971 and Marc Wright, fl. 2012; performed by Jack MacGowran, 1918-1973 (Pennebaker Hegedus Films, 1971), 54 mins

Selection of poems by Beckett from the Poetry Foundation.

Open Culture has curated a list of radio plays by Beckett freely available on the web.