“Nothing happens, twice”

This statement famously describes Waiting for Godot, but it pretty aptly describes his entire dramatic oeuvre.  And that, in a way, is the point.  Characters certainly do things in his plays - argue, eat, pack and unpack, attempt suicide, torture each other - but for all the doing that goes on within his plays, nothing happens.  No change to the characters, the scenery, the status quo, no indication of any kind of plot progression.  Whether it’s ruminating on the past (Krapp’s Last Tape, Play), meekly accepting the horrors of the present (Happy Days, Act Without Words II) or even futile gestures towards a future (Waiting for Godot, Endgame) Beckett’s characters remain stuck, physically and mentally, in ways that remind us uncomfortably of our own lives.

While the plays themselves come highly recommended, this edition was terrible.  Whoever digitized these texts needs to be fired, because not only were there a shocking number of typos, but also parts where the editor simply inserted crude JPEGs of text or diagrams whenever something was apparently beyond whatever primitive word processing software was used to create the ebook.  Speaking of diagrams, some more may have been rather helpful.  Given how complex Beckett’s staging and cinematography can be, I was struggling at times to try to imagine what was actually supposed to be happening.  Photos and stills from productions of his work would have added immensely to the work, and I’m disappointed they weren’t included.

A+ Text, C- presentation