BFTheatricalism

Prompt: Imagine you were sitting in a small hall watching a production of the play you heard read in class. Then consider the filmed production found below. In what ways has the film maker revised Beckett's instructions given in the text to suit the medium of film and how does that change your reception of the play?

The film maker did not use a spotlight which projected on the faces alone and prompted speech, having the light transfer from one face to another immediately. Instead the camera moved form one face to another and there was no spotlight at all. The camera angle would change every once in a while from a front view to a profile with a focus on the speaker and the shots would switch immediately from one speaker to another unless there was a pause indicated. The urns are quite discernible in the film, different from what Beckett had written. I wasn't sure if when Beckett wrote "faces lost to age" he meant the speakers were supposed to be old or if they were just supposed to be dirty and dusty but untouched by time as the director of the film took it. The film added more of a setting than was indicated in the text. The speakers in their urn are in a sort of graveyard reminding me of purgatory. The film adds more urns all in this hilly graveyard with twisted trees and fog at the end when they zoom out of the shot when the speakers have finished with all of their lines and you hear a hum of many many voices all speaking different things at the same time in he same tone as the speakers that were focused on. The idea that the speakers are trapped in a never ending cycle in purgatory, constantly reliving their past problems in their minds, talking about them in this case, since they haven't moved past them and haven't been able to forgive or seek forgiveness. The speakers and the other people in the other urns are stuck to repeat this cycle forever. These ideas weren't written in the script and the play would not have been perceived that way had the idea not been made apparent through the film.

Characteristics of Theatricalism:
 * Reaction to/rejection of naturalism and realism
 * Not meant to be understood completely but to be contemplated
 * Stylized acting
 * Was not meant to create an appearance of reality but to remind the audience of their role as viewers and critics
 * Meant to be strong as an art form rather than tell a story- Art in progress
 * Often meant to shock or surprise the audience
 * Many aspects of the production meant to be symbolic rather than literal
 * costumes and set typically fantastic and unrealistic
 * Meant to evoke emotion and questioning by the audience
 * Characterized by precise movements, speaking patterns, lighting changes, or a combination of the three; these are specifically described in the script and acted how it is written
 * Often break the 4th wall; the stage projects into the audience
 * The content is often meant to comment on some aspect of culture