"Imagination Dead Imagine" is a short prose text by

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

first published in French in '' Les Lettres nouvelles'' in 1965. Its first English publication was a translation in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' in 1965 followed by a trade edition by Beckett's London-based publisher, Calder and Boyars, later that year.

Plot

Developed as an offshoot of the longer prose work, '' All Strange Away'', and consistent with Beckett's preoccupation with cylinders and closed spaces in his work of the 1960s, the text explores "the theme of the dying imagination yet conscious of its own activity". Two white bodies are situated back to back inside a skull-like rotunda or vault. On the verge of extinction, the imagination of an unspecified being succeeds in imagining two bodies enclosed in a silent and motionless black and white environment subject to varying degrees of heat and cold with a brief interlude of grey. According to the painter

Avigdor Arikha Avigdor Arikha (; April 28, 1929 – April 29, 2010) was a Romanian-born French–Israeli artist, printmaker and art historian. Biography Victor Długacz (later Avigdor Arikha) was born to German-speaking Jewish parents in Rădăuţi, but grew ...

, an intimate of the author, the rotunda was inspired by the Val-de Grâce church in Paris which Beckett could see from his study window. In an imaginative transposition of reality, Beckett reduced the actual dome to a skull-sized vault that "has the ring of bone to it". The bodies of the two figures remain inert while their left eyes open in turn and stare for lengthy periods. The imagination of the invisible and nameless narrator constantly shifts position to examine, like a miniature camera, the two foetus-like figures in their stark environment. In effect, the figures "are like embryos waiting either for birth or for extinction". The text ends with the identities of the two figures appearing to merge to form a "white speck lost in whiteness".

Adaptations

A 1984 theatrical adaptation of the work pioneered the use of holography in live theater. Produced by the experimental theater group

Mabou Mines Mabou Mines is an experimental theatre company founded in 1970 and based in New York City. Founding and history Mabou Mines was founded by David Warrilow, Lee Breuer, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis, and Philip Glass, at the house of Akalaiti ...

, the work was directed by

Ruth Maleczech Ruth Sophia Reinprecht (January 8, 1939 – September 30, 2013), professionally known as Ruth Maleczech, was an American avant-garde stage actress.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', critic

Mel Gussow Melvyn Hayes "Mel" Gussow (; December 19, 1933 – April 29, 2005) was an American theater critic, movie critic, and author who wrote for ''The New York Times'' for 35 years. Biography Gussow was born in New York City and grew up in Rockville ...

described the production as "a paradigmatic example of the Mabou Mines mastery of technology in the name of art". In April 1986, at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

List Visual Arts Center Established in 1950, the List Visual Arts Center (LVAC) is the contemporary art museum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is known for temporary exhibitions in its galleries located in the MIT Media Lab building, as well as its admin ...

, Maleczich and Hartinian staged a slightly revised production, with Beckett's text spoken on tape by veteran actress Ruth Nelson.Carr, Jay (April 26, 1986)
"Mabou Mines Presents Beckett Text Eloquently"
''The Boston Globe''. p. 19. Retrieved March 7, 2022.

Notes

Bibliography

* Ackerley, C.J. and Gontarski, A.E. (2004). ''The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett''. New York: Grove Press * Knowlson, James (1997). ''Damned to Fame''. London: Bloomsbury

External links

by Susan Brienza {{Beckett-prose Short stories by Samuel Beckett