"Deconstructing characters"
Résumé
Beckett’s gradual deconstruction of his characters, from the decomposing figures of Endgame (1957) to the solitary Mouth of Not I (1972) has been hugely influential for contemporary playwrights. Yet his radical experiments remained a relatively isolated extreme in Ireland and Britain in the decades following the war: by comparison with its neighbours in continental Europe, English-language theatre tended to remain dramatic in its form, relying on the presence of characters and plot. The other plays presented in this section, Martin Crimp’s Attempts on her Life and Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, were both written in the 1990s and constitute a striking departure from this tradition. They represent some of the most ambitious post-dramatic experimentations that could be seen on the English stage at the end of the 20th century.