Deep within the Victory Gardens theater complex Thursday night, somebody dropped or kicked something loud. Because the short works of Samuel Beckett tend to be filled with audible non sequiturs, a good portion of the audience at the Irish Repertory of Chicago’s “Buckets O’Beckett” production reeled around in an attempt to discover if the noise could be part of the play.
It was not (or, because we’re talking Beckett, it probably was not). But such moments are part of the fun of experiencing the lesser-known works of the author of “Waiting for Godot.” In “Act Without Words 2,” for example, a couple of fellows in sacks move only when poked by a fake hand attached to a long pole manipulated from back stage. Snooze alarm, persistent spouse: They’re all motivational tools from existentialist hell.
When Irish Repertory was known as Splinter Group, the annual “Buckets O’Beckett” featured star names and was one of the major theatrical festivals of the summer. This, the troupe says, is a last nod to the tradition, before the buckets are emptied of absurdism to make room for other Irish scribes. And although the 2000 Beckett homage is on a simpler and smaller scale than previous efforts, this is still a worthwhile endeavor offering the chance to see rarely performed pieces.
About half of this 100-minute compilation is taken up by “Krapp’s Last Tape,” Beckett’s caustically depressing one-character take on death and historical legacy (or our lack thereof). Director Matt O’Brien, who gives the piece detail and integrity, cast the piece wisely with William J. Norris.
Norris, a veteran Chicago thespian, does not always get the chance to dig so deep into his own psyche, but he clearly went to some dark places to so deftly capture this sad and lonely character. Perhaps because it deals so specifically with death and panic, this has always been one of Beckett’s most emotionally engaged works. Norris understood that.
Aside from “Act Without Words 2” (performed with appropriately ironic angst by Dan Kozlowski and Christopher Lo Duca), “Buckets” also includes “Quad” and “Play.”
A non-oral piece for four actors first seen on Stuttgart television in 1982, the brief “Quad” consists of people in cloaks and hoods running around the stage, colliding in strange patterns. (In Beckett’s waning days, he became less and less interested in language). Here, mimes scurry along the sides and across the diagonals of a square but avoid the center as if it were a danger zone. It’s a minor, quirky and strangely involving piece.
The first act closes with “Play,” in which one man and two women are stuck up to their heads in a funeral urn and talk only when illuminated by a moving light. The frenetic speed of language sometimes got the better of the performers, but this was another smart staging from a troupe that has honed its Beckettian ways with flourish.
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“Buckets O’Beckett” When: Through June 25 Where: Victory Gardens Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. Call: 773-871-3000
