Annamaria Cascetta. // tragico e I'umorismo: Studio sulfa drammaturgia di Samuel Beckett. Florence: Casa Editrice Le Lettere, 2000. Pp. 403. In the introduction to this well-researched and informative study, Annamaria Cascetta makes judicious use of Beckett's own words in reference to the theatre to emphasize the new dimension the Irish playwright was bringing to drama: "For me the theatre is not a moral institution in Schiller's sense. I want neither to instruct nor to improve nor to keep people from getting bored. I want to bring poetry in to drama, a poetry which has been through the void and makes a new start in a new room-space. I think in new dimensions and basically am not very worried about whether I can be followed. I couldn't give the answers which were hoped for. There are no easy solutions" (15). Cascetta argues that critics of literature and of the stage, particularly in Italy, have chosen not to follow Beckett's lead; instead, they have bridled Beckett's theatre with such traditional reductive labels as "absurd" and "tragic." Cascetta sets out to correct this perspective by exploring how Beckett's use of humor in his theatrical works enables him to overcome the traditional representation of tragedy as well as the limits of the word. Humor, that is the systematic exercise of understatement, accompanies Beckett's characters to the acceptance of a finiteness, thus opening the doors to a new dimension ("via negativa") that places "existence," in all its bareness and concreteness, alone on the stage. Cascetta stresses the important role of the Bible in Beckett's theatre as a source of metaphysical inspiration (e.g. the archetypes of God the father, Job, Qohelet, and Christ) in his search for a radical and non-mediated relationship with the "other" and the "beyond." She proposes a diachronic reading of Beckett's theatre and chooses in her analysis to quote primarily from the text's first edition, that is in the language in which the drama was originally written. Each of the book's four chapters begins with brief account of the genesis of the respective plays as well as the events surrounding their premiers and/or memorable performances. Cascetta then turns her attention to a thorough and engaging analysis of the selected dramatic works. In the first chapter, "Esistenze in attesa. En Attendant Godot: Una partitura per 'passer le temps,'" Cascetta begins her discussion of Waiting for Godot with an insightful snapshot of the theatrical atmosphere in France in the immediate postwar years. Within a very traditional and resistant theatrical system, Beckett's play marks a radical change in the history of the theatre.
122 book review: II tragico e rumorismo Cascetta suggests that Beckett's lack of strong ties with the theatrical world coupled with his experience of demolishing the conventions of the narrative with his just completed trilogy in French, Molloy, Malone meurt, L'innommable, made him less inhibited and more willing to experiment with dramatic compositions. In her meticulous examination of Waiting for Godot, Cascetta focuses on such elements of the play as the trivialization of the hero, the banalization and repetitiousness of action, and the inadequacy of the word, to demonstrate how Beckett constructs a rigorous scheme that systematically dismantles the components of the traditional dramatic structure and replaces them with an entirely unique composition. Cascetta applies some theatrical philology to enhance her analysis of the play. On the basis of an annotated script of the first staging of the text in French under the masterful direction of Robert Blin, Cascetta demonstrates the significant impact of this first performance on Beckett's subsequent English version of the play. Blin's tragicomic reading of the drama and his signature "circus" references played a particularly influential role in Beckett's later version. In Chapter 2, "Declinazioni dell'esistenza," Cascetta's analysis of Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, and Happy Days stresses the maturation process in Beckett's idea of the theatre, as he increased his direct advisory role in productions of his work and began taking charge of directing his plays. In her discussion, Cascetta highlights James Knowlson's and Stan Gontarski's studies of Beckett's notebooks and annotated copies of scripts to illustrate how the direct experience with the theatre prompted the playwright to work toward simplifying and reshaping the plays, as he attempted to make them function well dramatically. In her treatment of Endgame, Cascetta argues that, contrary to those critics who have suggested a reading that leans toward introversion, it is important to consider how heavily the historical context weighs on the work and on the representation of a world at its end. This perspective is strengthened by the strong parallels she draws between the examples of world violence, vulgarities, and the oppression of power that appear to have affected Beckett's sensibilities and imagination and created the sense of moral and physical evil that pervades the entire text of Endgame. In order to emphasize Beckett's loss of faith in the communicative and cognitive value of language, Cascetta makes reference to the playwright's continual experimentation with theatrical conventions through the implementation of such non-dramatic forms as music, painting, photography, pantomime, and game playing.
Journal of Beckett Studies 123 Cascetta devotes a good part of her discussion on Krapp's Last Tape to Beckett's use of the tape-recorder as a tangible metaphor for writing. The author features Beckett's reference to the Proustian passage of Le temps retrouve in one of Krapp's reflections to underscore the systematic process of demythicization in Beckett's works. In her exploration of Beckett's questionings of the writer's being, Cascetta identifies the loss of another illusion: "Crolla I'illusione che la scrittura possa fermare quel che e mutevole, possa dare permanenza e eternita a quel che e prowisorio e transeunte, che il lavoro dello scrittore sia dawero quello, come credeva Proust, di edificare con le parole una 'cattedrale' che vince la morte e la rende inoffensiva e non temibile. Si polverizza I'illusione di una lunga tradizione, di cui Proust e un alto punto d'arrivo, che vede lo scrittore come il minatore unico di un giacimento immenso" (What crumbles is the illusion that writing is able to stop the changeable, that it is able to give permanency and a sense of eternity to that which is temporary and fleeting, that the task of the writer is indeed one, as Proust believed, of building with words a "cathedral" that overcomes death, rendering it inoffensive and unimposing. What crumbles is the illusion of a long tradition, of which Proust is a high point, that sees the writer as the sole miner in a limitless mine) (102). In her analysis of Happy Days, Cascetta offers a suggestive reading of the figure of Winnie to argue that the women in Beckett's plays, of which there are very few, are seen as much more resourceful and hopeful than men in the face of death and suffering. For Beckett, writes Cascetta, western man appears to have increasingly deprived himself of a concrete and immediate sense of happiness; consequently, with Happy Days, the playwright attempts to correct a "masculine" approach to reality, which has hit an impasse. By adopting a so-called female perspective and advancing the possible alternative of a "happy ending," Beckett is able, continues Cascetta, to question certain components of the tragedy in which death is the only option. In chapter four, "Atti senza parole. La stagione dei mimi," Cascetta prefaces her examination of Beckett's two mimes, Act Without Words I and Act Without Words II with an informative overview of the fervent cultural activity in Paris surrounding contemporary corporal mime. The author suggests that the innovations in the field of corporal mime could not have gone unnoticed by Beckett, who was always seeking to explore his own relationship with the actor arid to experiment with the various languages of the theatre. Beckett, according to Cascetta, was inclined to use his ideas on corporal expressiveness, drawn from the performances of Decroux, Barrault, Keaton
124 book review: II tragico e rumorismo or Chaplin, as a means of mitigating the serious allegory of existence in the two texts. Cascetta proposes a reading of Beckett's application of humor in a similar light. In other words, instead of expressing a tendency toward sarcasm or sadism, Beckett's humor, writes Cascetta, "alleggerisce la portata tragica della situazione esistenziale che rappresenta" (reduces the tragic weight of the existential situation that is being represented) (I 52). Such a perspective, concludes Cascetta, allows the reader to focus on what perhaps is the true message of the dyptich, that is the path of contemplation represented by the figure of A. Cascetta's final chapter, "The Shorter Plays' e il teatro della morte," examines those plays that form part of Beckett's late style, signaling the maximum of his experimental efforts in subjecting "writing" to his growing interest in the theatrical process. In her analysis of Play, which marks the beginning of this new phase, Cascetta traces the developments in Beckett's intense relationship with the theatre, from his interactions with actors, his obsession with technology, and the shattering of such theatrical conventions as the elimination of motion and the disappearance of dialogue. Cascetta offers a persuasive reading of literary and artistic sources that may have enabled Beckett to raise the events of a common love triangle to the level of an existential and metaphysical reflection. The intertextual allusions to Dante's Inferno and Purgatory as well as to Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author remind us that Beckett was by no means a passive observer of Italian culture. Cascetta indicates that Beckett's later works seek to capture an experience at the limits of its existence. Prompted by Beckett's words "Make sense who may./ I switch off," Cascetta sets out to demonstrate that this final phase of Beckett's theatre represents "quella della definitiva liquidazione del dramma e della tragedia" (the definitive liquidation of drama and tragedy) (174). Works like "A Piece of Monologue," "Footfalls," and "Breath" highlight Beckett's movement toward a minimalist theatre as he attempts to express the inexpressible. With "Breath," observes Cascetta, Beckett has achieved the moment of extreme synthesis "in questo itinerario di distillazione dell'essenza dell'esistenza" (in this journey to distill the essence of existence) (I 95). The chapter concludes with an incisive reading of Beckett's television play Quad. Here she follows Beckett's quest to explore the artistic potential of the new medium, while reminding us of the synergy that exists between his television plays and the dramas of the late style.
Journal of Beckett Studies 125 As an "Afterword" to her volume, Cascetta provides an excellent translation of Stan Gontarski's introduction to The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett. Gontarski's essay, "De-theatricalizing Theatre: The Post-Play Plays," offers the reader critical insights into the fundamental, yet thorny, question of the textual variations of Beckett's productions. The volume is further enriched by an appendix that includes an exhaustive survey of critical studies on Beckett and an equally extensive profile of the performances of his plays in Italy. One added visual pleasure to this invaluable study are the numerous photographs of Beckett performances on the Italian stage and illustrations of paintings and sculptures that punctuate the intertextual richness of the plays. Mark Pietralunga Florida State University