Up to their necks: The singular joys of appearing in Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett liked his actors to be up to their necks in it. In Happy Days, the protagonist's head pokes out of a mound of earth; in Play, characters are incarcerated in urns; in Endgame, it's dustbins. Sometimes he gets rid of their necks altogether: the actress in Not I must have her head strapped down, her body clamped still, so just her mouth can be lit. Demanding? Not half " and not just physically. Beckett's …