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''Catastrophe'' is a short play by Samuel Beckett, written in French in 1982 at the invitation of A.I.D.A. (Association Internationale de Défense des Artistes) and “()irst produced in the Avignon Festival (21 July 1982) … Beckett considered it ‘massacred.’”〔Ackerley, C. J. and Gontarski, S. E., (Eds.) ''The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett'', (London: Faber and Faber, 2006), p 85〕 It is one of his few plays to deal with a political theme and, arguably, holds the title of Beckett's most optimistic work. It was dedicated to then imprisoned Czech reformer and playwright, Václav Havel. ==Synopsis== An autocratic Director and his female Assistant put the “‘()inal touches to the last scene’ of some kind of dramatic presentation”,〔Zeifman, H., ‘''Catastrophe'' and Dramatic Setting’ in Davis, R. J. and Butler, L. St J., (Eds.) ''‘Make Sense Who May’: Essays on Samuel Beckett’s Later Works'' (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1988), p 133〕 which consists entirely of a man (The Protagonist) standing still onstage. The Assistant has arranged the man as she has seen fit to, atop a “black block 18” high”, draped in a “black dressing gown () to () ankles” and – peculiarly – sporting a “black wide-brimmed hat.”〔Beckett, S., ''Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), p 297〕 The bulk of the drama consists of the Director wresting control from her and moulding the man on stage to suit his personal vision. “The Director call for light, both for his cigar which is constantly going out and for the spectacle of the Protagonist on stage.”〔Roof, J. A., ‘A Blink in the Mirror: From Oedipus to Narcissus and Back in the Drama of Samuel Beckett’ in Burkman, K. H., (Ed.) ''Myth and Ritual in the Plays of Samuel Beckett'' (London and Toronto: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1987), p 161〕 The Director is an irritable and impatient man, his annoyance likely exacerbated by the fact that he has another appointment, “a caucus”,〔Beckett, S., ''Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), p 298〕 to attend and his time there is limited. He expresses concern with the overall appearance and demands that the coat and hat be removed leaving the man “shivering” in his “old grey pyjamas.”〔Beckett, S., ''Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1984)', p 298〕 He has the man’s fists unclenched and then joined, the only suggestion of his Assistant’s that he pays any heed to; once arranged at breast-height he is satisfied. (Beckett explained to James Knowlson that when he was composing ''Catastrophe'', “In my mind was Dupuytren’s contracture (from which I suffer) which reduces hands to claws.”〔Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p 597〕) The Director dismisses his Assistant’s proposal to have the man gagged (“This craze for explicitation!〔Explicitation is defined as "the process of introducing information into the target language which is present only implicitly in the source language, but which can be derived from the context or the situation" (Vinay J.-P. e Darbelnet J. Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais. ''Méthode de traduction'', Paris, Didier, 1958: p 8)〕”〔Beckett, S., ''Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1984)', p 299〕) or to “show his face … just for an instant.”〔Beckett, S., ''Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), p 300〕 He also has her make notes to whiten all the exposed flesh. In a moment of respite, when the Director leaves the stage, his Assistant collapses into his chair then springs out and wipes it vigorously, as if to avoid contamination, before reseating herself. This helps the audience appreciate better her relationship to each of the parties. She is after all the one who dressed the Protagonist warmly and who – twice – highlights the fact that he is shivering. In some ways she is just “another victim rather than a collaborator.”〔McMullan, A., Review: ‘Mois Beckett’ directed by Pierre Chabert, at the Théâtre du Rond-Point, Paris, 15 September - 16 October 1983, ''Journal of Beckett Studies'', Nos 11 and 12, December 1989〕 Finally they rehearse lighting with the theatre technician (the never-seen "Luke"). The play-within-a-play lasts only a few seconds: from darkness, to light falling on the man's head and then darkness again. Finally the Director exclaims: "There's our catastrophe! In the bag"〔 and asks for one last run through before he has to leave. He imagines the rising of the expectant applause on the opening day (“Terrific! He’ll have them on their feet. I can hear it from here〔Beckett, S., ''Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), p 301〕). The man has become, as John Calder puts it, “a living statue portraying, from the director’s point of view, the quiescent, unprotesting victim, a symbol of the ideal citizen of a totalitarian regime.”〔Calder, J., Review: Three Beckett Plays at the Harold Clurman Theatre, New York, 1983, ''Journal of Beckett Studies'', Nos 11 and 12, December 1989〕 However, in an act of defiance, the man looks up into the audience (after having been looking down the entire time); the “applause falters and dies.”〔 A Pyrrhic victory perhaps. However “the figure’s unexpected movement seems to happen not in the director’s imagined timespace but in the timespace of () performance. The moment is unsettling … We do not know why the figure has reacted like this; we do not know when the reaction happens; we do not know where the reaction takes place.”〔Pattie, D., Space, Time, and the Self in Beckett’s Late Theatre, ''Modern Drama'' Vol. 43, No. 3〕 Beckett told Mel Gussow that “it was not his intention to have the character make an appeal … He is a triumphant martyr rather than a sacrificial victim … and it is meant to cow onlookers into submission through the intensity of his gaze and stoicism,”〔Gusson, M., ‘Beckett Distils his Vision’ in ''The New York Times'', (31 July 1983), section H, p 3〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Catastrophe (play)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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