{"id":140,"date":"2014-02-25T12:57:15","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T12:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/staging-beckett\/?p=140"},"modified":"2014-02-25T12:57:15","modified_gmt":"2014-02-25T12:57:15","slug":"from-the-archives-cyril-cusack-in-krapps-last-tape-the-abbey-theatre-june-1960","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/staging-beckett\/from-the-archives-cyril-cusack-in-krapps-last-tape-the-abbey-theatre-june-1960\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Archives: Cyril Cusack in Krapp\u2019s Last Tape, The Abbey Theatre, June 1960"},"content":{"rendered":"

The great Irish actor Cyril Cusack (1910-1993), who was well known internationally and highly accomplished on both the stage and the screen, performed in a double bill of Krapp\u2019s Last Tape<\/i> with Shaw\u2019s Arms and the Man<\/i> at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1960 (Note that Abbey productions were at this time still being presented at the Queen\u2019s theatre following the fire of 1951). Cusack, an actor whose career spanned almost the breadth of the 20th<\/sup> century, first performed on the stage at the age of 7, and seems to have had a deep interest in Beckett\u2019s work, particularly so in the 1950s and 60s. A few years prior to this production of Krapp\u2019s Last Tape<\/i>, he had written to Beckett looking for permission to do a bilingual version of Waiting for Godot<\/i>. In May 1955, Beckett wrote to him giving his permission for this planned bi-lingual adaptation of the play <\/i>at the Abbey Theatre. Cusack’s vision had the play set in Connemara, with Vladimir and Estragon speaking Irish to each other and English to Pozzo and Lucky \u2018as is the familiar pattern in Gaeltacht areas\u2019. Cusack recounts much later that Donald Albery\u2019s resistance to Godot<\/i> being produced in Dublin in English made him, in temper, suggest this measure. Beckett gives him the necessary contact details for the rights from Editions de Minuit but seems somewhat bemused by the request writing, \u2018By all means do it in Gaelic in Dublin if you think it worth while. Why parts in English?\u2019[1]<\/a> This particular production, with all its postcolonial resonances, never materialised; Cusack went on to play Krapp at the Abbey and later made a recording of readings of Molloy<\/i>, Malone Dies<\/i> and The Unnameable<\/i> (Caedmon Records, 1963).<\/p>\n

A programme for Cusack\u2019s production of Krapp\u2019s Last Tape<\/i> is held at the Dublin City Library and Archive and no doubt some new material will come to light through the Abbey Theatre\u2019s digitisation project at NUI, Galway. Reviews for this production suggest some disappointment, with Krapp\u2019s Last Tape<\/i> in particular. Yet this was down perhaps to the strength of the production which preceded it. One reviewer had the opinion that, coming after the \u2018tour de force\u2019 of Arms and the Man<\/i> (with Maureen Cusack and directed by Godfrey Quigley), Krapp\u2019s Last Tape<\/i> was something of a disappointment: \u2018Mr Cusack laboured the early earthiness and the grotesque, bewildering the audience, leaving them uncertain how to take the poetry, and tempting them perhaps to seek an easy refuge in his virtuosity.\u2019[2]<\/a> Yet, negative comments aside, this doubly-billed production clearly had appeal; after playing in Belfast at the Empire Theatre and in Dublin, it went on to represent Ireland at several European festivals of drama. During what was a month-long tour of Europe, Cusack\u2019s performances won him the individual award for best actor the International Festival in Paris.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"cusack\"<\/a> Cyril Cusack (1910-1993)<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> See Fehsenfeld et al (eds), The<\/i> Letters of Samuel Beckett, 1941-1956, <\/i>(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 533-4<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[2]<\/a> \u2018Arms and the Man <\/i>& Krapp\u2019s Last Tape\u2019<\/i>, Irish Times<\/i>, 21 June 1960<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[3]<\/a> \u2018Best Actor Award for Cyril Cusack,\u2019 Irish Times<\/i>, 14 July 1960, p. 1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The great Irish actor Cyril Cusack (1910-1993), who was well known internationally and highly accomplished on both the stage and the screen, performed in a double bill of Krapp\u2019s Last…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,17,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1960s","category-irish-productions","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the Archives: Cyril Cusack in Krapp\u2019s Last Tape, The Abbey Theatre, June 1960 - Staging Beckett<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/staging-beckett\/from-the-archives-cyril-cusack-in-krapps-last-tape-the-abbey-theatre-june-1960\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the Archives: Cyril Cusack in Krapp\u2019s Last Tape, The Abbey Theatre, June 1960 - 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