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TRANSLATING SILENCE: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN BECKETT, CHEKHOV, AND HIRATA The silence is enhanced by the absence of the third person, and the ritualistic pattern in the silent atmosphere is represented by whispering and astonishment. Ihis exchange of roles can be seen as that of the protagonist (Shite) and the supporting actor (Waki). When they change places, similar to suriashi, shuffling with sliding feet in Noh dance, “their feet make no sound. Beckett notes that they should not be seen to leave the stage.”'! In this way, each woman in turn becomes the central figure of the play by entering and leaving the stage in silence. Viewed in the light of the categorization of Noh drama, Come and Go uniquely belongs to both “realistic Noh” and “fantasy Noh” as two of the three women onstage play the role of Waki to purge the agonies of the ghostlike third woman. The effective use of silence is discovered in this double structure of Noh drama.” SILENCE IN CHEKHOV’S THE THREE SISTERS IN COMPARISON WITH HIRATA’S PRODUCTION Like Beckett, Chekhov emphasizes absurdity and silent atmosphere onstage. While the three women in Chekhov’s The Three Sisters are represented realistically with their social background because they are given a more specific, or concrete, situation and relationships, those in Beckett’s Come and Go look more like identical objects wearing the same costume in different colors without detailed status. This section focuses on how silence in The Three Sisters is beneficial for understanding Beckett’s dramaturgy as well as Hirata’s. We can say that silence is given prominence not only by Beckett but also by Chekhov in that in their works, “a love of solitude, stillness, and silence has no necessary connection with a religious impulse, since these preferences are found in people of all faiths and none.” The three sisters, who talk a lot to pass the time, indulge in but are also tired of their stagnant situation, which may be symbolized as their waiting in silence with their hope for a new life in Moscow. On the contrary, the characters in Beckett’s Come and Go represent silence itself through their non-verbal movements, gestures and costumes, as well as through the lighting and stage props. As analyzed by Tomio Yamanouchi, “the lives of the characters in Chekhov's drama are full of absurdity, and it may well be said that his plays are theatre of the absurd in modern realism,”'* which implies that Chekhov was the predecessor 1 Tbid., 89. This section is based on my paper, i. e. Yoshiko Takebe: Analysis of Beckettian Noh for Contemporary Performing Art, Shujitsu English Studies 30 (2014), 229-243. 133 Mary Bryden: Samuel Beckett and the Idea of God, London, Macmillan, 1998, 178. Tomio Yamanouchi: Dramaturgy, Tokyo, Kinokuniya, 1979, 103; my translation. + 119 +
