{"id":111,"date":"2015-08-18T13:04:05","date_gmt":"2015-08-18T17:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/?page_id=111"},"modified":"2016-03-16T16:17:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T20:17:08","slug":"trouble-with-titles-and-directors-benjamin-britten-and-william-plomers-curlew-river-and-samuel-becketts-footfallspas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/home\/trouble-with-titles-and-directors-benjamin-britten-and-william-plomers-curlew-river-and-samuel-becketts-footfallspas\/","title":{"rendered":"Trouble with Titles and Directors: Benjamin Britten and William Plomer\u2019s <I>Curlew River<\/I> and Samuel Beckett\u2019s <I>Footfalls\/Pas<\/I>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p src=\"\/learningtokneel\/files\/2015\/08\/6.2-Whitelaw-in-Footfalls-416x636.jpg\" alt=\"Footfalls - scene\" class=\"wp-image-53 size-medium\" height=\"636\" width=\"416\">Britten and Plomer put the noh play <em>Sumidagawa<\/em> through multiple stages of adaptation and revision over a period of years to create their queer drag \u201cparable for church performance,\u201d <em>Curlew River <\/em>(1964). The conventional Christian renunciation in <em>Curlew River<\/em> has been unpalatable to some queer theorists just as feminists have critiqued Beckett\u2019s authoritative directing practice and painful dramaturgy in late plays like <em>Footfalls\/Pas\u00a0<\/em>(1976). Yet, Beckett&#8217;s (and then his estate&#8217;s) insistence upon compliance with his vision for his plays has been so effective that few have dared any kind of deviation. Preston reads both\u00a0<em>Curlew River\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>Footfalls\/Pas\u00a0<\/em>as noh-influenced late-modernist dramas exploring submissive forms of being.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_53\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53\" style=\"width: 426px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"\/learningtokneel\/files\/2015\/08\/6.2-Whitelaw-in-Footfalls.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/learningtokneel\/files\/2015\/08\/6.2-Whitelaw-in-Footfalls-416x636.jpg\" alt=\"Footfalls - scene\" class=\"wp-image-53 size-medium\" height=\"636\" width=\"416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/files\/2015\/08\/6.2-Whitelaw-in-Footfalls-416x636.jpg 416w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/files\/2015\/08\/6.2-Whitelaw-in-Footfalls-670x1024.jpg 670w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 416px) 100vw, 416px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-53\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Footfalls<\/em> &#8211; scene from the play by Samuel Beckett, with Billie Whitelaw in 1976. \u00a9 John Haynes\/Lebrecht Music &amp; Arts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_171\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-171\" style=\"width: 418px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"\/learningtokneel\/files\/2015\/08\/SoundingBeckett_09-13-12_400_CMYK_forBook-copy.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/learningtokneel\/files\/2015\/08\/SoundingBeckett_09-13-12_400_CMYK_forBook-copy-408x636.png\" alt=\"SoundingBeckett_09-13-12_400_CMYK_forBook copy\" class=\"wp-image-171 size-medium\" height=\"636\" width=\"408\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/files\/2015\/08\/SoundingBeckett_09-13-12_400_CMYK_forBook-copy-408x636.png 408w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/files\/2015\/08\/SoundingBeckett_09-13-12_400_CMYK_forBook-copy-656x1024.png 656w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 408px) 100vw, 408px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-171\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Holly Twyford as May in <em>Footfalls<\/em> as a part of \u201cSounding Beckett.\u201d Directed by Joy Zinoman and presented by Cygnus Ensemble (New York, 2012). \u00a9 www.photographme.us and\/or Jeremy Tressler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britten and Plomer put the noh play Sumidagawa through multiple stages of adaptation and revision over a period of years to create their queer drag \u201cparable for church performance,\u201d Curlew River (1964). The conventional Christian renunciation in Curlew River has been unpalatable to some queer theorists just as feminists have critiqued Beckett\u2019s authoritative directing practice [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10800,"featured_media":0,"parent":5,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10800"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111\/revisions\/347"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/learningtokneel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}