Testy killers for hire. Long, void pauses. Waiting. Toilets flushing. Unintelligible whispers. More waiting. Untold sadness and frustration. These are the devices of Nobel prize winning writers Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett and the vices and secrets of their characters populating “Come and Go,” “Footfalls” and “The Dumbwaiter.” This triumvirate of absurdist stage plays will be presented by ETSU’s Division of Theatre & Dance and ETSU Department of Literature and Language Oct. 7-9 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 10 at 2 p.m. in ETSU’s Bud Frank Theatre.

Beckett and Pinter offer a different experience in theater, says director Pat Cronin, head of ETSU’s Division of Theatre and Dance. “They broke all the conventions, all the rules,” he says.

In each of his plays, Beckett challenges the structure of theater, says co-director Dr. Katherine Weiss, English Department director of undergraduate studies. “His unique use of lighting and reduced body movement in his plays went against the conventions of theater,” she says.

Sam Floyd, a 21-year-old ETSU senior theatre major, has taken on the challenge of helping translate one of Pinter’s menacing murderers to the local audience. “This is definitely a different role for me because I’m usually the lover,” says Floyd, who portrays head assassin Ben in “The Dumbwaiter.” “It’s also been very interesting because I’ve never had to do an accent before.”

Floyd, whose most recent ETSU appearance was in the spring’s “Tartuffe: Born Again,” has been rehearsing with coaching in his Cockney accent from Dr. Will Crooke, assistant professor of German and French.

While “Dumbwaiter” has its characters waiting in a Beckett-esque way, the waiting and opportunities are over in the latter two pieces of the program, which are indeed by Pinter’s predecessor and absurdist role model.

“These plays are about human loss and how we cope with it,” Cronin says. “Come and Go represents the way we don’t connect until it is too late.”

The seven-minute “dramaticule,” as Beckett termed it places three eerily mysterious school friends on a bench before the audience. Katie Harbin, a 22-year-old theatre and broadcasting major, portrays Flo, who, like her aging friends appears to be dealing with some sort of repressed tragedy. “It’s worth seeing for sure,” says Harbin, equally mysteriously.

As Vi, sophomore theatre major Chelsea Kinser, 18, has had to learn “to act without emoting,” she says.

Yet, Kinser says, the bond between the three women playing the roles of the friends – who don’t mind to whisper behind the others’ backs – has been strong. “It’s been really neat to see the progress we’ve made,” says Kinser, whose ETSU performances have included “Tartuffe,” “Piece of My Heart,” “The Crucible” and “Our Town.” “Not only did we connect as actors, but also as characters.”

ETSU senior theatre major Sammie Cook, 24, doesn’t mind the less-than-cheery mini-drama. “I love it and am very excited,” says Cook, who portrays Ru, the last member of the reminiscing trio. “Most other performances I have been in are lighthearted or children’s plays.”

The third play embodies all its sadness and poignancy in one character and a ghostly voice. “Footfalls” is about a woman who is listening to a voice that is apparently the voice of her deceased mother and trying to make sense of her life, says Cronin. “It’s about memory, about loss, about things we forget or can’t forget,” he says. “It’s about missed opportunities to express how we feel.”

Senior theatre and broadcasting major Bethany Stokes, who is playing the pacing, “in tatters” daughter May, says she has gained invaluable experience becoming a character crafted by the groundbreaking existentialist Samuel Beckett. “Playing multiple roles has been a stretch,” Stokes said. “But I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

Despite the focus on loss, missed opportunities and emptiness, the absurdists’ messages have positive aspects. “All of Beckett’s plays are about that terrible sense of loss we feel,” Cronin said. “Beckett’s plays represent the ‘if only’ cry.”

Yet instead of being upset by the emotions, Cronin says, audience members should leave feeling better because they find they are not the only ones experiencing or that have experienced sadness. ” ‘Isn’t life a terrible thing, thank God?'” Cronin quotes Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

“It’s like a vase that crashed to the ground,” says Cook, of the eerie female trio. “You can pick up the pieces and glue them back together but you know the cracks are still there. Beckett and Pinter definitely pick up on how to display the cracks.”

These plays, Weiss says, will likely affect theatergoers in ways as unconventional as the playwrights and plays themselves. “I want those who attend the shows to be moved,” she says, “and not in the conventional way, but to have something inside of them stirred up.”

Stokes says she encourages people to take advantage of getting to see three shows for the price of one. “They all link together,” Stokes says, “but are such unique animals at the same time.”

An Evening with Beckett & Pinter will be performed in ETSU’s Bud Frank Theatre, Gilbreath Hall, Oct. 7-9 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 10 at 2 p.m. Student tickets are $7 and general admission $15. For information or reservations, call 423.439.6511 or go to www.etsu.edu/theatre.

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