at Eric Bentley's

In Manhattan, around 6 pm in July 2004, on a day like these days, I was on my way to Eric Bentley's residence in Riverside Drive, not far from Columbia University, Bentley's academic den until some forty years ago. I rang the door bell and he was standing there with his arm streched welcoming me. I entered his suite and sat down with him in the living room. It was supposed to be a quick introductory visit and we agreed that I call for lunch on Saturday. I stayed with him for over three hours, both of us oblivious of time passing swiftly amidst a warm and intimate conversation about things theatrical, Brechtian, Shavian (the man being Brechtian and Shavian) and Beckettian (I being Beckettian and Shavian). He said he was going to tell me things exclusively to me which he had not put in print--which he did about the memorable 1949 staging in East Berlin of Brecht's Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, directed by Brecht himself with Frau Brecht in the title role. Bentley, however, like Jesus cautioning his disciples against false prophets coming after him, cautioned me that a lot of materials written about Beckett after his death could be untrue