Decomposing and Recomposing Ghost Trio

Abstract

A full decade passed between Eh Joe and Beckett’s next original project for television, Ghost Trio.¹ The interim period was one of the most productive and frenetic of his career. He resisted the potentially fossilizing effect of winning the 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature, continuing to produce original fiction, resurrecting and translating previous works, and conceiving new innovations for the stage. Perhaps his most pioneering accomplishments during this period were as a director. Between his first credited production on 1966’s He Joe for SDR and his next TV credits on 1977’s Shades program for the BBC 2 series “The Lively Arts,” Beckett directed, codirected, or supervised no fewer than a dozen productions of his work.² His post-Nobel celebrity, though unwelcome, did insure that his plays (and their playwright) were in constant demand.