Where Samuel Beckett and Mr. Noodle meet, there’s Bill Irwin
Tony Award-winning actor Bill Irwin says he’s better performing the work of Samuel Beckett than talking about it. Perhaps that’s because he takes such a physical approach to the words of the sometimes-cerebral Irish playwright and novelist.
Although known as a master clown (“The Regard of Flight” or as Mr. Noodle on “Elmo’s World,” depending on your age group), Irwin received Tony Awards for two wildly different productions: for “Fool Moon” with co-creator David Shiner, and as George in Edward Albee’s searing drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?” Irwin brings that same blend of seemingly contradictory skills to “On Beckett,” his exploration of the work of Samuel Beckett, which he’ll perform Oct. 26-30 on the Robert J. Orchard Stage at the Emerson Paramount Theatre in an ArtsEmerson production.
“I’m not a scholar or a biographer,” says Irwin (who has, however, performed in four different productions of Beckett’s influential “Waiting for Godot,” playing alongside the likes of Steve Martin, Robin Williams, and Nathan Lane). “I like to say I’m infected by his writing. I have a complicated relationship with his words.”
In “On Beckett,” Irwin explores both his frustration and admiration for those words through his skill with clowning and his ability to use his body as much as his voice to communicate meaning. While “Waiting for Godot” serves as a kind of anchor to the 90 minutes of conversation and performance, Irwin also explores the characters and themes in some of Beckett’s other writings, including “Stories and Texts for Nothing” and the novels “The Unnamable” and “Watt.”
Irwin, whose clowning skills honor the baggy pants tradition of vaudeville and such comic icons as Charlie Chaplin, says Beckett straddles the fine line between comedy and tragedy, between joy and despair. The challenge for an actor, he says, is to find the center of the work, and even where to place the emphasis on the words.
“The language is so simple and direct,” he says, “and yet the meaning can be so complex.”
“Waiting for Godot,” heralded for its modernist sensibility and absurdist themes since its debut in 1952, has become bogged down by the baggage of the literary world, Irwin says. “There’s even a debate over the correct pronunciation of Godot,” he says.
“The ideas of the play used to be so far out,” he says, “but now . . . all those themes of alienation, an inability to move on, the invisible but looming authority figure, they’ve gone viral, like cat videos.”
The play essentially follows two characters — Vladimir and Estragon — who while away the time waiting for a mysterious fellow named Godot by entertaining each other. They are also briefly distracted, once in each act, by the appearance of the odd Pozzo and his slave Lucky. On the surface, the play’s themes seem bleak, as the erstwhile duo’s endless waiting appears to be pointless. And Irwin admits that more than one person has told him, “You must love despair.”
But, he says, stories of individuals confronting despair are the stuff of heroic legends. Despite all the absurdities, life goes on. The ability to see comedy in the midst of life’s tragedies is what makes us human.
Still, Irwin admits that some of Beckett’s writing is simply beyond him.
“Some of his texts are so tedious,” he says, “but also so fascinating. In the plays, because the dialogue is so spare, we look to his stage directions for guidance, but they are so fussy and potent and opaque and unhelpful. At one point in ‘Godot,’ the stage direction reads ‘he runs feverishly to and fro.’ Later, he describes a movement as ‘sagging at the knees.’ A lot is required of a director and actor to choose the appropriate emphasis.”
Samuel Beckett, and his estate, famously demanded productions of his work strictly adhere to his language and stage directions, shutting down shows that veered too far from his intentions. Irwin says those strictures may have eased a bit over time, but his long history with the work has certainly helped.
“I keep discovering new things in the words,” he says. “I don’t know why. But I don’t know how an airplane stays up in the air either, but I still want to climb onboard.”
“On Beckett,” Irwin says wryly, “is an elderly practitioner’s opportunity to talk about his efforts to be a careful steward of the work while delivering performances that entertain and engage audiences.”
ON BECKETT Presented by ArtsEmerson. At Robert J. Orchard Stage, Emerson Paramount Theatre, 559 Washington St. Oct. 26-30. Tickets from $25. 617-824-8400, ArtsEmerson.org
A different view of toil and trouble
Just in time for the spooky season, Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell presents Lee Sunday Evans’s 90minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s bloody tragedy, “Macbeth” (through Nov. 6). Only this time the story is told through the eyes of the three weird sisters, who shift from observers to participants. Rosa Joshi directs, with original music by Heather Christian. Tickets $15-$78. www.mrt.org.