Not I

Not I is a thirteen-minute dramatic monologue that was written in 1972 and premiered that same year at the Forum Theatre, Lincoln Center, New York. In 1975 Samuel Beckett made a television version for the BBC, performed by Billie Whitelaw and directed by Bill Morton. Lúa Coderch recovered such version for the exhibition “Girls With No Doos on Her Mouth”, in which a human mouth filmed in close up recited a fragmented monologue made up by syncopated phrases about an individual, dealing with issues related to the idea of speech. Using research not to become an expert on a particular topic but to explore the surface of things and the materiality of personal and historical narratives, Lúa Coderch uses a wide range of media and strategies to ask about the aesthetical aspect of topics like sincerity, enthusiasm, value or deception. Both things and anecdotes keep appearing once and again as characters in a great story that arises from the stringing of her different projects.