BWW Q&A: Bill Irwin Talks ON BECKETT at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Tony Award-winning actor and master clown Bill Irwin (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Sesame Street) has spent a lifetime captivated by Samuel Beckett. With little more than a funny hat and a podium, Irwin mines the comedy and tragedy of Beckett’s work—including Waiting for Godot, Texts for Nothing, and more—in a nonstop display of jovial verbal and physical comedy that has become Irwin’s signature. Whether you’re encountering the Nobel Prize winner’s writings for the first time or building on a body of Beckett knowledge, the “pure, energizing joy” (The New York Times) of Irwin’s dynamic showcase is not to be missed.

Bill Irwin is a Tony Award winning actor, director, writer, and clown. Original works include The Regard of Flight; Largely New York (Four Tony Nominations); Fool Moon; Old Hats, The Happiness Lecture; and others. He has played in many Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional stage productions, including, ON BECKETT, The Iceman Cometh, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play), The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?Waiting For Godot (2009 for a Drama Desk Award nomination); Endgame; The Tempest; Texts for Nothing; Garden of Earthly Delights; Accidental Death of An Anarchist; Showboat – and the Tony Award-winning Fool Moon, which he created with David Shiner and Nancy Harrington.  

On television, Irwin appears as Mr. Noodle of “Elmo’s World” and Carey Loudermilk of “LEGION”. The Regard of Flight (PBS) he created with Doug Skinner, Michael O’Connor, and Nancy Harrington. Film credits include “Rachel Getting Married”, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”, “Eight Men Out”, “Interstellar”, “Stepping Out”, “Unsilent Picture”, and more.  Irwin was an original member of Kraken, a theatre company directed by Herbert Blau, and was also an original member of the Pickle Family Circus of San Francisco with Larry Pisoni and Geoff Hoyle. Irwin is the grateful recipient of MacArthur, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. 

What inspired you to create a one-man performance about Samuel Beckett's works?

I did some of Mr Beckett’s plays, and performed some of his prose — partly by choice but partly just by actor’s chance. And then I realized the language stayed with me, and in fact, wouldn’t leave me alone . . . Then I came to realize I was becoming not only a Beckett aficionado but perhaps also, as an actor, an interpreter of the writing — because it was with me all the time, and because it engages my actor’s mind, all the time.

How do you believe your background in clowning impacts your interpretation of Beckett's works?

I feel the music hall and vaudeville traditions in Mr Beckett’s writing. WAITING FOR GODOT is many things — never going to sum it up in a sentence — but it feels rooted in stage traditions as well as in scriptural and philosophic traditions. It’s a clown play, among all the other things it is.

Can you elaborate on the process of researching and understanding Beckett's works for this show?

Immerse in the language — examine the language — learn it, say it. And look for the way to say it that makes the most sense on any given night. The old actor’s question, what does this character want ... What is the desire that drives this language?

How do you balance the comedy and tragedy of Beckett's writing in your performance?

I just try to feel what Mr Beckett’s balance seemed to be as he wrote. He makes me laugh, when I read — (though interestingly the laughs that come in the ON BECKETT evening are not usually in those places that make me laugh in reading. Sometimes, but often not. . .)

What do you hope the audience will take away from your interpretation of Beckett's works?

I hope it will feel like a good evening in the theatre. We keep coming to theatres — the pandemic hasn’t stopped us, the national turmoil doesn’t stop us — we show up to see things and hear things. To sit together and witness and judge. I hope this will feel like a good evening in a theatre. (There's good laughter in the evening — or there’s every intention — I don’t think of Mr Beckett’s writing as lugubrious and dark . .)

Why must audiences come and see the show?