The Association Samuel Beckett Paris 14 hopes to make the art of contemporary theatre, in general, and the works of Samuel Beckett (including his non-theatrical texts), in particular, more accessible and understandable to the general public, and to support contemporary art in all its forms and not only the literary or theatrical. The Association Samuel Beckett Paris 14" is seated in the 14th arrondissement because that was Beckett's home for the best part of his artistic life.
We aim at creating opportunities to exchange thoughts, ideas on the art if staging, interpreting, acting, etc. Other forms of artistic and cultural expression will also be discussed. We strongly believe in the important role culture and the arts play in any given society.
The Association also wishes to create an “experimental scene” around which participants, including Beckett specialists (actors, directors, playwrights, set and costume designers, academics, linguists, musicologists, etc.), can work, do some research, experiment and debate. Workshops on performance, direction and dramaturgy, dedicated to the theatre of Samuel Beckett, will be organized, as will conferences and exhibitions.
The site for The Association Samuel Beckett Paris 14 is currently under construction. It will expand over the next few weeks.
In the midst of the 1940s, at the end of the nightmare of the Second World War, Eastern Europe, just like Western Europe, went through an exceptional period. The arts flourished, theatre in particular... this was especially true in our native Yugoslavia.
My friends and I had the good fortune to attend many theatrical performances during those years. We discovered the works of the greatest playwrights in the world. However, despite the great play scripts and the prestigious productions, we gradually became bored by what we saw. We were unconsciously longing for something new, for something more spontaneous, more authentic, more substantial, more “essential”.
Then, in the midst 1950s, during this phase of doubt, from the other side of “The Iron Curtain,” came Waiting for Godot—the greatest theatrical event of the 20th century—and in Yugoslavia, too, it was widely acknowledged as a monumental success.
Godot was for us all a troubling experience. A complete shock !
It seemed to us that The Theatre of Samuel Beckett was unlike anything we had seen before. It breathed new lie into Western Theatre. We tried to express and record our experience of that exceptionally play, Waiting for Godot and were keen on knowing more about its mysterious and already mythic author. As time went on, our interest and curiosity kept increasing and we were determined to know more about this writer, who, to us, was shrouded in mystery.
We were so fascinated by this new kind of writing that when we learned, some time later, that his second play—Endgame— had opened in Paris, we immediately ordered it from the “Editions de Minuit.” Then, in a completely innocent, naïve and bold way... we decided to translate and perform this new play, the most difficult, the longest and the most enigmatic of Beckett’s plays. We spent close to two years of intense work, preparing our “innovative” production. (See the complete text under the rubric “History”).
At the same time we were continuing to search through the “archives” and libraries for all that had to do with Beckett and his Theatre, with an eye towards preparing the best possible staging of his play and, finally, to have it performed in front of an audience by our little company of young, passionate “innocents.” Innocent because, at that time, we did not know that before performing a play you had to ask the writer for permission because of copyright ! And, at the moment of the first performance of Endgame ( translated as Kraj partije ) — at the end of the 1950s — officers of the court came to our theatre and stopped our production, because we had not properly dealt with the problem of copyright... We were devastated! Desperate and having NOTHING to lose, we then decided (not without some apprehension) to write to Beckett, himself. We wrote to him (in Paris) for the first time, at the end of the 1950s, never imagining then that our correspondence would continue until the end of 1989, two or three months before he died.
In 1959, arriving in Paris, we had the honour and great joy to meet Samuel Beckett and to speak with him in person about all our problems with the translation, production and performance of his plays, in general, and Endgame, in particular... During the next ten years, in Paris, we became more and more aware of the difficulties and all the work necessary to prepare, stage and play his works in a suitable manner... and we thought of creating an association so all those who were interested in Beckett could communicate, exchange and compare their experiences... And, on the hundredth anniversary of his birth in 2006, we began to lay the ground work for this association, using the occasion to donate to the City of Paris a bust of Samuel Beckett, cast with great respect and gusto by a sculptor from the ENSBA of Paris, and a future member of our association. In 2007, the bust was installed in the heart of the City Hall of Paris’ 14th arrondissement, close to where Beckett lived for more than thirty years.
Finally, in the summer of 2009, more than 50 years after our first “encounter” with Beckett’s theatre we created the “Association Samuel Beckett Paris 14,” and were much encouraged by the Cultural division of the Mairie de Paris.