American Conservatory Theater presents On Beckett:
Conceived and performed by Bill Irwin
A.C.T.'s Toni Rembe Theater
415 Geary St, San Francisco, CA 94102-1222 USA
7:30 PM, Wednesday, October 19, 2022

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[7:36 PM] {lights down, welcoming announcements from Jennifer Bielstein}

1. [7:38 PM] {Opening talk by Bill}
2. [7:48 PM] {1st Reading}
3. [7:58 PM] {transition talk}
4. [8:00 PM] {2nd Reading}
5. [8:10 PM] {2nd talk}
6. [8:16 PM] {3rd Reading}
7. [8:20 PM] {3rd talk}
8. [8:43 PM] {4th Reading}
9. [8:57 PM] {4th talk}
10. [9:02 PM] {5th Reading}
11. [9:08 PM] {5th talk}
12. [9:10 PM] {closing}
    [9:13 PM] {show ends}

• Bill Irwin: actor, clown.

Samuel Beckett is surely on the short list of literary giants of the 20th Century, so when I saw Bill Irwin's show on the ACT calendar, I jumped! Gotta go!! Of course, the trouble was making a date fit from the limited selection available: somehow we ended up with opening night. Lots of enthusiastic fans in the house (both theatre geeks AND Irwin freaks). People-watching outside and in the lobby before the show was fun.

And the show? Riveting! It starts off with Bill doing a sort of dry, academic introduction, then gradually introduces elements of whimsy and delight, so that eventually he's in full clown mode. Yay!

Content-wise, my recollection is that two of the readings were from Texts for Nothing, another was an excerpt from Watt, and that two were from Waiting for Godot. Taking notes would have been a good idea, but tonight I surrendered myself to the flow of words, and made only timestamp annotations … filled in by guesswork after the fact (in other words, while the times above are true indications of something happening, the what it was is by fading recollection rather than the usual written journal.

Should you see this? If you appreciate clowning and word play you gotta go! Unfortunately, it's a bit too late to catch the SF run: that brief engagement ended 10/23/22.

By the way, if you're confused about what and where is this “Toni Rembe” Theater: it's the same old Geary Theater, splashed up with a bit of fresh paint and front of house renovation (with naming and other philanthropic recognition splashed all over the place). Did they swap out the low-slung and cramped seats? Nope. What about fire/emergency safety: is there any better egress from the hall? Nope: the majority of the floor seats still spill into two main aisles, which clog up as soon as someone stops to talk, take off a coat, or fuss with their accoutrements. Is it a potential death trap? Yep!

Program Notes or program notes

Sam Hurwitt posted a promo piece with the Mercury News, and Karen D'Souza followed up with a decent reviw.

Jim Munson posted a review with Broadway World. Strangely, both articles shared the same ACT promo photos.

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2022 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2022 event list! ☸ On to the next event!