Female voices: Not I, Footfalls, Cadence

Female voices: Not me, Steps, Cadence collects three Samuel Beckett plays, composing the late oeuvre of one of the 20th Century foremost playwrights. Amidst language experimentation, the plays share the common axis of female protagonists. Boca, in Not I, is the victim of voices she can’t silence; May, in Footfalls, has her existence permeated by the indefiniteness between life and death, imagination and memory; and M., in Cadence, faces alone, but decidedly, a residual life. Translations by Fábio Ferreira.

“In the austere stage, under low lights, the three characters occupy themselves recreating typical Beckett creatures: divided, ruined, mismatched consciousness, characters for whom there’s no trust in fixed identity or guarantees of cohesive memory. All that’s left is inhabiting fragmented, evanescent bodies, acedia, first the compulsive mimicry of mobility, then near-total immobility,” states Fábio de Souza Andrade, professor of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at USP, in this edition’s foreword.

About the author
Samuel Beckett was born in 1906 in Dublin, Ireland. Playwright, novelist and poet of English and French expression, he’s one of the 20th Century’s most fundamental writers. Among his most relevant works, are Waiting for Godot, Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, Happy Days and Endgame. In 1969, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in Paris in 1989.

About the translator
Fábio Ferreira is a director, playwright, translator and theater researcher. With a doctorate and a master’s degree in Literature, Culture and Contemporaneity from PUC Rio/University of Copenhagen, and a bachelor’s degree in Performing Arts Theory from UNIRIO, he’s a professor of Art and Philosophy at PUC Rio/CCE. He created the festivals Rio Cena Contemporânea (1996/2007) and ArtCena – Processos de Criação (2008/2011), and has directed various plays, such as: Dorotéia, Menos Um [Except One], Traço Obscuro [Obscure Trace], O Idiota [The Idiot], Mosaico Maiakovski [Maiakovsky Mosaic], Mistério Bufo [Mystery-Bouffe], e Vozes do Silêncio [Silent Voices]. He’s a researcher at the USP/CNPq Samuel Beckett Studies Group.

About the collection
The Dramaturgia collection has, since 2012, published writing by Brazilian and international playwrights. The books help in building a memory of current theater, making a new record in the contemporary theater scene. In 2015, Cobogó also launched Dramaturgia Espanhola, the Spanish collection, and, in 2019, Dramaturgia Francesa, the French collection, and Dramaturgia para Crianças, for children. Over 50 authors have been published, with 80 titles.

Specifications
Title Female voices: Not I, Footfalls, Cadence
(Vozes femininas – Não eu, Passos, Cadência)
Collection Dramaturgia
Author Samuel Beckett
Translator Fábio Ferreira
Language Portuguese
Page count 88
Cover Luiza Marcier
Size 13 x 19 cm
Format Softcover
Year 2022