Main content

‘Reinterpretation the mark of a good play’

A leading theatre critic's list of the "101 greatest plays" has raised eyebrows for not including the highly regarded Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett and Shakespeare’s “King Lear”.

Michael Billington defended his choice by saying that while Waiting For Godot is an important play in the history of drama, it had lost some of its innovative power.

The mark of a great play was one that allowed room for reinterpretation, he added.

“What I tried to do is analyse for myself the constituent elements of a great play, I’m not sure I found an answer but I found some elements,” he said.

The actor Lisa Dwan disagreed, saying Billington had missed Beckett’s profound impact in 20th Century innovation in theatre.

“Beckett’s non-textural offerings are far more resonant and shocking,” said Dawn, who is currently on an international tour of a one-woman Samuel Beckett trilogy.

Release date:

Duration:

4 minutes

This clip is from