The Limits of Theater

Abstract

In the traditional criticism Beckett’s plays have, from the beginning, been dubbed “experimental”; and Godot’s failure in Miami proved that a profound tragic sense can become confused when it is expressed in surface ironic humor. That experience should have proved only that Beckett was never the victim of the inauthentic plights of his heroes. Although the Miami fiasco was in a sense tragic, it was a natural consequence of an inept reading and of the ridiculous commercialism of the American theater. In spite of his multifarious uses of the “convenience” of philosophy to structure his fictional worlds, his own world view remains a matter of conjecture, unimportant for the interpretation of his works; and Godot’s reception in Miami¹ touched his actors more than it did Beckett himself.