Beckett ‘Weekend’ Is a Stark Exploration

Rick Cluchey and R.S. Bailey, co-directors of “A Weekend With Samuel Beckett” at the St. Ambrose Art Center, offer an evening of Beckett one-acts in celebration of the San Quentin Drama Workshop’s 40th anniversary. Obviously done on a shoestring, this no-frills production is rigorous in intent, if not production values.

Co-founder of the workshop, Cluchey, a former convict who went on to become Beckett’s protege and dedicated interpreter, is particularly well-acquainted with Beckett’s austere power. And in the spirit of that un-histrionic austerity, the directors create a subtly hypnotic atmosphere for serious intellectual reflection.

The plays explore the suffocating dynamic of twisted love. “Come and Go” shows us three women (Mary Dryden, Nora Masterson and Akemi Royer, alternating with Jennifer Rebecca Bailey) transformed into affectless automatons, we suspect, through the depredations of loveless marriages. “Footfalls” features the painful discourse between an agoraphobic woman (Bailey, alternating with Dryden) and her domineering offstage mother (Masterson).

In “Eh Joe,” the virtually motionless Joe (Cluchey) endures the hissing imprecations of a former lover’s voice. The actress responsible for this subtly malevolent audio performance, the tape of which was given to Cluchey by Beckett before his death, remains unidentified--a fittingly cryptic legacy from this master of the cryptic.

* “A Weekend With Samuel Beckett,” St. Ambrose Arts Center, 1261 N. Fairfax Ave., West Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Ends Nov. 30. Pay what you can. (310) 572-0154. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.