AMtheatricalism

1.

Though the playwright was extremely specific in his description of the production of the play, by changing the medium from stage performance to movie, the filmmaker was able to alter these specifications in a way that suited his vision.

The most obvious difference between stage and film is that the camera angles are used to focus/divert the audience’s attention. This ability to alter scenes grants the filmmaker a kind of freedom that a theatre director would never have. The camera switches from face to face rather than changing the lighting between faces as Beckett described. Often a mechanical sound accompanies these shifts which complements the mechanical way that the actors speak. This sound makes their existence and location even more odd and disconcerting.

The close ups of certain facial features, especially the eyes and mouths, are used to show subtle movements that intensify the emotions or lack of emotions that would otherwise be indistinguishable during a play. Two noticeable examples of this are the twitching eye of W1 and the hysterical laughing (though it sounded more like a scream) of W2. This enhances the strangeness of the setting and focuses the attention on the slight or perhaps full-fledged insanity of these characters.

Another noticeable difference from Beckett’s instructions is that the setting of the three urns is shown in the film. In Beckett’s introduction he writes, “The curtain rises on a stage in almost complete darkness. Urns just discernible.” In the film version, however,but the urns are not only very visible in they are also set in a location relative to the strange world they inhabit. The three urns are only a few of what appears to be hundreds of other urns in which other people are muttering about their unhappiness from their mortal lives. Though this setting is a great deviation from the play, it grounds it in such a way that it is easier to interpret. With other urns present, it is easier to understand that these people are like hundreds of others living in a purgatory land, unable to relinquish the thoughts of their past, forced to repeat them over and over.

The close ups, extreme make up, and setting offer a closeness that could not be reached in a stage setting. Though the changes due to the greater freedom in a film alter the original intention of the play, the changes all make the meaning of the play/film easier to understand.

Characteristics of Theatricalism


 * It does not seek to create the illusion of reality, it purposefully creates a strange environment
 * Stylized acting- not naturalistic at all, focuses on being strange and not normal
 * Odd setting-surrealistic or minimalistic setting (Play is surreal, The Sonnet and Einstein on the Beach are minimalistic)
 * Repetitiveness- shown in motion, speech, and theme (Play has the dialogue repeated over again, the movements of the people in Sonnet are all uniform, the music and dance in Einstein on the Beach is present throughout)
 * Extreme emphasis- on dance/music, on a singular image (dance and music for Einstein on the beach, a singular image of three people in large urns in Play, emphasis on the song and blankness in Sonnet)
 * Disturbing- from the videos we have watched that is all I can describe them as