Laura Condlln, Shannon Mercer and Sofia Tomic (Photo by John Lauener)
See It!
A Beckett noob gets bit
by Stuart Munro
I confess. Even though I went to a performing arts school, I don’t know anything about Samuel Beckett. Certainly the name had come up more than once, and I knew the title of Waiting for Godot, but that was the extent of my experience. (It was a music theatre school. Ask me about Sondheim sometime.) So I didn’t know what to expect from the opening night of Queen of Puddings Music Theatre’s Beckett: Feck It!
I certainly didn’t expect to love it.
Beckett: Feck It! combines four of the shorter plays by the Irish playwright with more contemporary Irish classical music which the playbill asserts is “inspired by his work.” The formula feels a bit artificial, as if the creators were looking for a way to link the plays together with something more than a fade out/fade in. But even given that, the structure works; the music and song always have the same tone and energy of what’s preceded or what’s to come. Soprano Shannon Mercer possesses a beautiful and clear voice and delivers all the music in convincing German and Irish. Ms. Mercer appears in one of the short plays as well and manages to hold her own alongside the more seasoned actors.
