When beginning the process of devising ‘If An Orchid Was All You Had’, one of the very few rules set by us was that the show would sit on the foundations of absurdity and surrealism. Whilst this was by all means a company consensus, it would feel disingenuous to neglect my own personal fondness for the absurd, more specifically the works of Samuel Beckett. With this basis in mind, it is important to note the influence of Beckett’s works on ‘Orchid’. Indeed, ‘Orchid’ began its life as a pseudo-anthology, if you will, of some of Beckett’s short plays. Whilst our philosophy on process allowed us to quickly expand on this idea, I believe the influence remained, and permeates throughout ‘Orchid’. Let us start with the plays themselves (Beckett, 1990). In ‘Orchid’, the Cyclist meticulously cares for the orchid during the Interludes, and longs to be with it when he is ripped away. It mesmerises him, just as Krapp is with his recordings in ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ (1958). From ‘Not I’ (1972) the mouth is shown during Denial, hanging over the scene, trapped by the very screens it is broadcast on. Another came after we invited Michael Pinchbeck to view our work-in-progress, where he suggested to us that the text of our Memory scene should be the main focus (we had previously been performing the scene in an overly-exaggerated manner, and the text had been suffering for it). After experimenting with new ways of presenting the text, I suggested we perhaps look at an adaptation of Beckett’s ‘Play’ (1964), a video of which can be found below:

This fast and emotionless delivery brought the text to the forefront, and again proved to us that our grounding in absurdity (forgive the oxymoronic nature of that coupling) was integral to not just ‘Orchid’, but Rubbish as a company. As Vladimir and Estragon are doomed to wait for an elusive Godot, talking idly to pass eternity by, the Cyclist is just as trapped, with talk replaced with regimented movement. As the wheel of a bike infinitely spins, so too does the Cyclist’s ritual. This cyclical nature, seen frequently in Beckett, is key to the atmosphere ‘Orchid’ creates, namely one that is warped and macabre. Aesthetically, ‘Orchid’ scavenges from dystopia and post-apocalypse. This is in no small part due to the ramshackle-yet-incredible set and the menacing appearance of the Creatures, and reminds one of everything from George Orwell’s ‘1984’ (1949) to the ‘Fallout’ game series (1997-). Of course, with this comes the atmosphere, the Cyclist always being watched by the Creatures. His solace is an orchid in a world of rubbish, but he is continuously prevented from this by an ambiguous power.

Works Cited
Beckett, S. (1990) Samuel Beckett: The Complete Dramatic Works. London: Faber & Faber.
Marinela Paspali (2015) Samuel Beckett Play 2001 (beckett on film) [online video]