BECKETT PRODUCED BY PETER BROOK

Advantages: SUPERB ACTORS
Disadvantages: GLOOMY, AS IT SHOULD BE

...Last night I have seen Peter Brook's production of "Come and Go", together with "Rough for Theatre I", "Rockaby", "Neither" and "Act without Words II". The title of the whole evening was "Fragments", and it lasted about an hour; "Come and Go" is the last little play staged, and one of the best pieces. As most of my readers probably know, Beckett was a Nobel price for literature, author of great plays like "Waiting for Godot" (first staged in 1952) and "Endgame" (1956), and of smaller plays called with the French term "dramaticules" (little plays). They last from few minutes to seconds ("Breath", for instance, is just a breath, taking about half a minute). Beckett's most famous plays date back to the fifties; he died in 1989, and kept writing till the end. "Rough for Theatre I" belongs to Beckett's production of the fifties...

shakscene 26.11.2007 · Read review
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Review of Come and Go - Samuel Beckett

The Frugal Cook - Move Over Nigella!

Advantages: Good common sense recipes to make the most of your food budget.
Disadvantages: Not enough pictures of the finished product.

...The Frugal Cook by Fiona Beckett ***What's it all about? *** In keeping with the fashion for all things frugal, Fiona Beckett has written a cookbook to make the most of feeding your family. It starts with some tips on how to generally analyse the way you think about food. She first looks at the skill of stretching food, being more energy efficient and the frugal store cupboard to name just a few tips. Then the main emphasis of the book is on recipes, including sections on: ~Budget breakfasts and brunches ~Light lunches and snacks ~Easy midweek suppers ~Big weekend cook-ups ~The frugal host Finally there is a section containing and A-Z of leftovers and what you can do with them. There is also a section advertising her blog. The book is 208 pages long and is published by Absolute Press (2008). I did actually get this book from...

LAURALILIA 26.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Frugal Cook - Fiona Beckett

Because hanging gives an erection?

Advantages: Faithful to the original text, and so much effort was put into the films
Disadvantages: Wished to find more prominent actors in them

...Beckett on Film DVD The 4-DVD box set consists of 19 film adaptations of plays by Samuel Beckett. These plays are: Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days, Act Without Words I, Act Without Words II, Krapp's Last Tape, Rough for Theatre I, Rough for Theatre II, Play, Come and Go, Breath, Not I, That Time, Footfalls, A Piece of Monologue, Rockaby, Ohio Impromptu, Catastrophe, What Where. * To start with, I will not talk about each of these plays on its own, as this will be just tedious and not helpful; describing some of the plays will be enough to give you an idea of the project and help you decide better, I think. The reason why I watched these DVD's is definitely Waiting for Godot, which I read a couple of years ago but didn't have the chance to see it performed. Reading the play was not an easy task at all, that's why I think...

sottovoce82 16.05.2007 (28.12.2007) · Read review
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Review of Beckett On Film (DVD)

Waiting for Whom?

Advantages: Applicable to a modern audience
Disadvantages: Takes a lot of studying to truly understand it

...*Original Thoughts* Admittedly, when I was first told we were to study this play in drama, I was a little apprehensive. I had loosely heard of Beckett - his works being associated with little action and long synonymous dialect. Obviously not something that appealed to me? and I was right, this play was dull, strange and bore little impact onto my life. At least, that's what I thought. As I began to read the pages, I began to discover the fine art of Beckett's work, something which I found appealing and strangely hypnotic - words I don't usually associate with simply just reading a play. It is for this reason, I will try and share with you an account of what I think to be one of the best ever written plays. I ask to please bear with me, whilst some of the rhetoric may seem disjointed, I feel it to be entirely...

tashat 30.05.2005 · Read review
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Review of Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett

Once upon a time in the 70s

Advantages: Thorough, very readable, well-researched account of the decade
Disadvantages: Not a light read - definitely one for the history enthusiast

...) story. Thirty years later, as Beckett notes in his conclusion, some things have changed, for better and for worse - and we still veer between boom and recession. Beckett?s emphasis throughout is on political history, yet in a lively way. The author has interviewed several of the movers and shakers, notably Heath, a mere year before his death, and Labour chancellor Denis Healey, trade union leaders such as Jack Jones and Jack Dromey, and Margaret Thatcher?s adviser Sir Alfred Sherman. I found the picture of a careworn Harold Wilson, who had never expected to win the February 1974 election and return to power, with his health beginning to fail and an intense fear of being bugged (will we ever know the exact truth?) during his final term as Prime Minister, quite poignant. There is very little reference to the cultural icons of the day...

JOHNV 13.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies - Andy Beckett

Chemistry has never been so gripping

Advantages: Easy to read British forensics crime fiction
Disadvantages: Some might be put off by the forensics descriptions

...At the beginning of the year I saw a poster on the underground advertising this book. Straight away I was interested as it looked like my kind of book so I made a mental note to look it up on Amazon. When I did it did sound really good and for some reason I've only just got my hands on a copy. I've an interest in forensics and have long been fascinated by it so when I read that this involved forensics I knew I'd enjoy it. I'd never heard of the author Simon Beckett so I had no idea what to expect although I'd imagine it would be somewhat like a Patricia Cornwall or Tess Gerritsen novel. Sometimes it's best to have no pre conceptions and to dive straight in. The opening of the book as fascinating and draws you in, well at least for anyone interested in forensics and in this case the decomposition of the human body. "A human body starts...

salem_witch 04.12.2006 · Read review
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Review of Chemistry Of Death - Simon Beckett

Nun of that, now...

Advantages: Fun, lively, interesting, colourful
Disadvantages: Exclusively Western in approach

...has gone into the production of this volume. None of the art is reduced to black and white, but rather presented in glorious colour. With over 800 images in under 400 pages, this is a feast for the eyes. Each page is dominated by art, not text. That makes for slow moving, like reading a museum.. Sister Wendy Beckett takes us on an historical tour of painting (in the European theatre of history), beginning with prehistoric cave-art and drawings, leading up to modern and post-modern artists. She takes representative pieces, such as the Bosch painting of Death and the Miser to illustrate points of colour, detail, composition, and story. Some paintings have complex stories (such as this one), others have simple composition (such as the `innocently disadvantaged' Mona Lisa) which give endless speculation as to the meaning. Sister Wendy...

frkurt 12.09.2004 · Read review
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Review of The Story of Painting - Wendy Beckett

Waiting And Waiting

Advantages: Original, funny and interesting
Disadvantages: Not everyone's cup of tea

...Samuel Beckett has been a great influence to 20th Century theatre. In the 1950's he invented a new kind of play - absurd. Now many of you may read this play and think that it is the biggest lot of rubbish, but as I always say - a play is meant to be seen and not read. "Waiting For Godot" was the beginning of absurd drama and absolutely slated by the press on it's opening. One reviewer wrote "Nothing happens. It's terrible!" But somehow, it caught on and people like Stoppard, Ionesco and many others followed in Beckett's footsteps. The play shows us a day in the life of Vladimir and Estragon, two homeless men waiting... for... well Godot of course. What Godot is, we can only speculate, but the play is funny (if performed correctly) and intrigueing. If your usual type of play is "Mrs. Brown's Last Wedding" or "Jack...

Kozinski 23.12.2000 · Read review
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Review of Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett

Waiting for a good available production of this

Advantages: Fascinating, beautifully comical, unpatronising, complete yet not satisfying
Disadvantages: Probably boring to some due to lack of real action

...I first discovered this play when I was 15. I study Drama at school and found the bit of the play we acted really amusing (if completely random) so I went out and bought it. Seen as a whole, it's not so much random as life-like, in an obscure and worrying way. The play deals with the subject of Life, portraying humanity and its eternal wait for something amazing to happen. Two of the characters (of which there are only four) spend the play ambling about the stage, waiting for Godot to appear and sporadically threatening to leave or suggesting that they commit suicide. Nothing happens, as Beckett himself writes in the play. A few entrances and exits, but in general nothing more than frustration and occasional wonder. It's fantastically funny, with witty and bizarre comments flying between Vladimir, Estragen and Pozzo (but not...

punkdizzylaa 30.03.2003 · Read review
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Review of Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett

This really isn't for everyone but its good

Advantages: Great play
Disadvantages: Hard to get into for some people

...Waiting for Godot was originally written in French but was subsequently translated back to English by Beckett. It was Beckett's first play, and many would say one of his greatest. There are heavy influences from Beckett's peer-group in the "Theatre of the Absurd" - which later influenced writers such as Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter. The two main charachters are Vladimir and Estragon who are waiting on a deserted road for Godot to come along. There is also a boy who appears at the end of each act to tell Vladimir and Estragon that Godot will not be coming that night but in act two he denies that he was there the night before. Pozzo and his servant Lucky also appear. They create a distraction for Vladimir and Estragon in act 1, but in act two they are blind and dumb respectively. Things are very confusing for Vladimir...

kenigma 22.02.2001 · Read review
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Review of Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett