"Impeccable and screamingly funny."

― New York Times, 2011 Cleverest Theatrical Moments

"Mr. Brook and Beckett are a seamless match in their reverence for theatrical economy using minimal means to maximum effect."

― The New York Times

Overview

A return of last season’s acclaimed production of C.I.C.T. / Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord’s Fragments, these five texts by Samuel Beckett are directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne. Peter Brook, one of our era’s greatest directors, interprets Samuel Beckett, the 20th century’s greatest playwright. Beckett was acclaimed in part for his incomparable concision, his unique mastery of the breathtakingly profound short work. Fragments assembles the five Beckett shorts Rough for Theatre I, Rockaby, Act without Words II, Neither and Come and Go, performed by Kathryn Hunter and her former Complicité colleagues Jos Houben and Marcello Magni.

“Beckett was a perfectionist,” writes Mr. Brook, “but can one be a perfectionist without an intuition of perfection? Today, with the passage of time, we see how false were the labels stuck on Beckett—despairing, negative, pessimistic. Indeed, he peers into the filthy abyss of human existence. His humor saves him and us from falling in, He rejects theories, dogmas, that offer pious consolations, yet his life was a constant, aching search for meaning.”

Fragments is presented by special arrangement with Georges Borchardt, Inc. on behalf of The Estate of Samuel Beckett. All rights reserved.

This engagement is presented in association with the Baryshnikov Arts Center.