MR+Play

Question 2. Consider the instructions that Beckett has given the performers in his script. In what ways have the performers in the film version modified the characters to suit this filmed version.

The film version of Samuel Beckett’s //Play// incorporates many of Beckett’s instructions, while reworking some of them for film. Beckett’s first instruction is that the urns are touching each other. In the film they are separate, with the middle one pushed slightly forward. But to honor Beckett’s instructions, the camera shoots at varying angles. One is from the side, where all three characters can be seen in profile. The arrangement of the heads are the same, with the man in-between the two women and they face undeviatingly front, just as Beckett instructed. The ashen makeup on the actors’ faces suit two instructions, they seem almost part of the urns, but are not wearing masks. Beckett explains that a spotlight illuminates one face and immediately transfers to another. Because there are not spotlights in the film, the camera takes over it’s position. The camera zooms on the one fact that is speaking and instantly switches to the next face for the next line. This keeps the “rapid tempo” Beckett wanted. The play repeats itself twice, and ends with the beginning of a third repetition to simulate that it will forever continue to repeat itself, just as Beckett wanted. Overall, the film had to adapt to incorporate the rules set by Beckett.

On Wednesday, Oct. 26 I suggested that you should compile a list of characteristics of Theatricalism drawn from the video material on the subject and from your readings. Please do that. You may tack the list to the end of the question on Beckett's __Play__ that you have chosen to answer, if you wish.

Music: Both the Shakespeare Sonnet interpretations and //Einstein on the Beach// involved music to heighten the performance experience.

Non- Cohesiveness: In //Einstein on the Beach//, the creator explained that the song, dance, and acting would have no connection to each other. In //Play// the faces we’re uttering about the same events, but so vaguely and quickly that its hard for the audience to connect the sequence. The Shakespeare Sonnets have the most connection. The performers in Sonnet 23 all sing together and move together, and the performers of 71 play off each other, as one flicks her hand that causes another to fall to the floor.

Repetition: Speech is repeated in all four examples. //Play// repeats itself numerous times until the audience leaves. In the clip of //Einstein on the Beach,// Lucinda Childs recites her speech about bathing caps at least five times.

Movement: Aside from Beckett’s //Play// where the performers stay strictly still, the theatrical pieces emphasis movement. //Einstein on the Beach// focuses on movement and dance, as dancers are the main performers. If there is not a choreographed section of dance being performed, then the actors are moving in millimeter increments. This glacier speed of movement, mixed with random bursts of energy, can be seen in both Sonnets. In Sonnet 23, the performers take two minuets just to turn their bodies to face the audience, but at the end an old women bounces out on the stage. In 71, one performer slowly removes a paper from a box, while another character snatches it and rips it in less than a second. The slow movement is deliberant, while the fast is chaotic.

Duration: All of the pieces are excruciatingly long. They expect the audience to leave before they finish. The four-and-a-half-hour long duration of //Einstein on the Beach,// with its randomness and repetition, seems extremely excessive. After the first repetition, //Play// offers no new dialogue or substance, yet it can continue for hours. Even the Sonnet’s dragged on. It took six minutes of little movement and yelling to interpret a 14 line sonnet.

Imagery: Each theatrical piece focuses on creating a set image. Through staging, costuming, lighting, and other design elements, the director tries to form a picture on stage. Beckett arranged his three urns to form a painting of the underworld, where the three faces are forced to endlessly repeat their sins. Robert Wilson, Phillip Glass, and Lucinda Childs wanted to recreate iconic images of Albert Einstein, which included a performer in realistic Einstein make-up and wig. They had to arrange their performers to form a pleasing image that could seamlessly transition to another image. The Shakespeare sonnet performers take great caution in positioning themselves just right to make the perfect composition.

Meaning: The purpose of the pieces having an meaning is not the main focus. Instead, the theatrical directors created a world that is up for audience interpretation. I found that the faces of //Play// were that ashen remain of souls, forced to relive their sins in purgatory. I understood that in the Shakespeare sonnets, the sexual ambiguity of the performers related to the fact that men played women in Shakespeare’s time. Now the ironic modern twist is having women play men. As for //Einstein on the Beach,// I believe the meaning of the performance is to have little or no meaning at all. The audience should just sit back and enjoy the piece for all that it is.