Bill Irwin is Samuel Beckett in Shakespeare Theatre Company's On Beckett/ by Craig Schwartz
Bill Irwin is a Tony Award winning actor, director, writer, choreographer, star of stage and screen, and devotee of Irish author Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) whom Irwin portrays in a solo performance at Shakespeare Theatre Company.
Last Saturday night's crowd at On Beckett enthusiastically welcomed Irwin's Beckett show, Beckett's large photograph making up a big chunk of the initial black backdrop.
For all those who know something and more about Beckett and for those who want to know more, it is an evening of pleasure.
Beckett was born in Dublin, Ireland, the winner of Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, a modernist writer of all things bleak, sad, tragic, and absurd who wrote in English and French and is best known for End Game (1957) and Waiting for Godot (1952) from which Irwin read excerpts and periodically presented brief biographical Beckett sketches.
"We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener."
Irwin also quoted from Beckett's Texts for Nothing about old men searching for new meaning in new places.
"Yes, I was my father and I was my son. I asked myself questions and answered as best I could....the same old story I knew by heart and couldn't believe, or we walked to each in his world, the hands forgotten in each other."
Irwin, who bears a striking resemblance to his subject, created the show which he complements with clown antics (he studied at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College) and bigger pants, jackets and suspenders he puts on.
In keeping with the minimalist Beckett content, the stage (by Charlie Corcoran) was the same with bench and podium (from which sprouted an unruly microphone) which became a screen for Irwin's ascents and descents. (You have to be there.)
James Joyce was Beckett's mentor and friend who often wore a bow tie (he gave one to Beckett), a cravat Irwin wore, too, with, at times, a bowler hat, and a cane.
Irwin, 75, is the first performing artist to be awarded a five-year MacArthur Fellowship.
The performance lasted about 90 minutes and seemed much shorter.
Michael Gottlieb's excellent positioning of spotlights and lighting from above and behind the audience cast Irwin's shadow on the backdrop.
Other creative team members: Martha Hally, costumes; M. Florian Staab, sound; Lisa McGinn and Natalie Hratko, stage management.
Special performances include:
Open captioning: 2 p.m., Feb. 21; 12 p.m., Mar. 4; and 7:30 p.m., Mar. 5
Audio description: 2 p.m., Feb 28
Young Prose Night (under 35): 7:30 p.m., Feb. 20
What: On Beckett
When: Now through March 15. 2026
Where: Klein Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, 450 7th Street, N.W.
Tickets: Start at $35
Box office: 202-547- 1122
The show is an Irish Repertory Theatre production made in association with Octopus Theatricals.
(Of note: Google no longer permits links to Wikipedia.)
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