That's what I wondered when I saw this item about the "world premiere" of Beckett's Eh Joe in London, starring Michael Gambon. Hmm. I distinctly remember it going up onstage at the Mark Taper Forum back in 1989 or 1990 (listed here). So which is it? Can a Beckettophile help me out here?
Ahm ... I suppose they could both be world premieres of different stage productions. Eh Joe's premiere in its original form (as "a piece for television") was in German translation on Suddeutscher Rundfunk in 1966; the English-language original premiered on the BBC later that year.
ReplyDeleteThe "Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett" (really an indispensable reference work) says that it was "first staged at New York University and at the Festival d'Automne in Paris (1981), with David Warrilow and Helen Bishop directed by [Alan] Schneider." So I don't know what kind of "world premieres" these might be, in either the television or the stage sense.
Consider the delicious absurdity of it...
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