Samuel Beckett

L.A. Drama Critics Circle announces 2012 nominations

2013-01-24 19:00:00

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle announced on Thursday its nominations for its 2012 awards. Leading the way, with five nominations each, were productions of August Wilson's "Jitney," "Silence! The Musical" and Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot."...

2012 in review: Teamwork enlivens the theater world

2012-12-15 10:00:00

Could the theater artist of 2012 really be … Samuel Beckett? Well, the 1969 Nobel Prize winner had stiff competition this year from Anton Chekhov, dead for more than a hundred years but more alive than ever onstage. Chekhov's early play "Ivanov"...

Tracy Letts plays his part in illuminating Edward Albee's 'Woolf'

2012-12-01 07:00:00

NEW YORK — Tracy Letts has his hands full these days writing plays and preparing for the release of the movie version of his Pulitzer-Prize-winning drama, "August: Osage County." But he's added another formidable task to his agenda: elucidating...

Marathon plays stand the test of time

2012-11-25 06:00:00

Call it "Long Day's Journey Into Intermission." Or maybe "Waiting ... and Waiting ... and Waiting for Godot." It is the marathon play or performance piece, the theatrical equivalent of the Tour de France or the nine-course prix fixe menu at the French...

Taking note of a wave of shorter plays

2012-11-25 06:00:00

As artistic director of L.A.'s Center Theatre Group, Michael Ritchie reads more than a play a day on average — perhaps 500 a year — in quest of the 15 or 16 he'll pick each season for his company's three stages. But lately he's noticed...

Cultural Exchange: Agatha Christie's 'The Mousetrap' endures

2012-11-25 06:09:00

LONDON — Has anyone built a better "Mousetrap"? Britons just getting over celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee are now in the throes of another: the 60th anniversary of the world's longest-running play, "The Mousetrap" by Agatha...

Love, loss and taxidermy in Lydia Millet's 'Magnificence'

2012-11-16 13:20:00

Lydia Millet's "Magnificence" is a novel of ideas. I mean that as a high compliment, for the ideas Millet invokes are the only ones that matter: life, death, love, longing, extinction, the ongoing existential quandary of what we are doing here. The final...

Center Theatre Group leads Ovation Awards nominations

2012-09-11 20:00:00

The nominations for the 2011-2012 Ovation Awards were announced Tuesday evening. Leading the way were Center Theatre Group with 29 nominations, followed by the Celebration Theatre and Musical Theatre West, with 16 nominations each. Productions that...

Review: John Hurt is magnificent in Beckett's 'Krapp's Last Tape'

2012-10-12 05:00:00

With his shock of silver-gray hair, his face etched by time with the lean expressiveness of a Giacometti sculpture and his soulful eyes registering every fleeting hurt and happiness, John Hurt bears a striking resemblance to Samuel Beckett in the...

Book review: A vivid portrait of 'The Hunger Angel'

2012-06-03 00:00:00

The Hunger Angel A Novel Herta M�ller, translated from the German by Philip Boehm Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt: 292 pp., $26 Fortunately, the Nobel Prize committee for literature has gotten it right when it's recognized the courageous, sensual...

John Hurt in 'Krapp's Last Tape' for Kirk Douglas Theatre season

2012-06-07 07:22:00

John Hurt performing Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape" will be among the highlights of the Kirk Douglas Theatre's 2012-13 season, which will be announced Thursday by Center Theatre Group. The season will feature a total of five main productions,...

Review: L.A. Phil's 'Sublime Schubert' fest kicks off with heat

2012-04-17 17:35:00

"Sublime Schubert" is what the Los Angeles Philharmonic is calling this week of Schubert and nothing but. The festival began at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Monday night with a performance of the most beloved song cycle, "Die Sch�ne M�llerin," by...

Clint Eastwood follows in Tarantino's footsteps and gives up filmmaking for book reviewing. As readers of the New York Review of Books soon learn, the man who spoke to an empty chair at the 2012 Republican Convention is a big fan of Samuel Beckett.

2013-01-03 13:16:37

Alan Mandell, left, and Barry McGovern, in a production of "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett, at the Mark Taper Forum earlier this year.

2012-11-12 12:20:08

Two-time Oscar nominee John Hurt performs "Krapp's Last Tape" by Samuel Beckett at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, Calif.More: John Hurt plays back 'interrupted pause' of 'Krapp's Last Tape' | Review

2012-11-02 15:24:54