Samuel Beckett and The Empty Stage

"As we shall see, Beckett's ultimate goal was not to eliminate either visual image of language, but to discover images as well as utterances which, instead of telling a story, would convey to the spectator a profound and complex sense of emptiness and silence" (60-61), writes Les Essif. Specifically relating this to Play, one way to analyze what Essif wrote is that "less is more". Things that hold true to that idea seen in Play, there are three characters all by themselves in individual urns, specific lighting, and rapid-monotone speech. Another thing that Essif states about Beckett and the theme of emptyness is, "A metaphysical point of view, however, would prompt a different reguard for darkness as it would for emptiness, so the obsure or out of focus periphery becomes more alluring and functional then othewise considered" (70).

I think that if Play was written any differently, both with the text and stage directions, it would not convey the messages it was intended to. Also, we wouldn't be able to appreciate Beckett's wonderfully unique and absurdly delightful work!

Sources:
Essif, Les. Empty Figure on an Empty Stage. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Universtiy Press, 2001.

Interviews on Beckett and "Play"

The Repeat of "Play"

When asking "why repeat the entire play", I found that there was a method to Beckett's madness. To being, the play is very fast paced with very minimal to no expression. So by having the play repeated, we'd be able to catch things that we (as the audience) didn't before. With that, it also heightens the characters reality.

In Martin Esslin's book The Theatre of the Absurd, he writes, " Beckett has attempted to achieve the impossible (the idea of"eternity" be put on to stage, especially for a play that has a run time of roughly 30 minutes) by having the entire text of Play spoken twice, identically, except that the words become faster and softer. When the third time comes round is reached the play fades from our view, but we remain aware that it will go on, ever faster, ever more softly, forever and forever" (59).

The more the audience hears it and the actors playing these characters recite it, the more haunting and eerie the play becomes.

Sources: Esslin, Martin. Theatre of the Absurd: Revised Updated Version. Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press, 1973.

Samuel Beckett and The Theatre of the Absurd

In the book the Theatre of the Absurd, written by Martin Esslin, first beings by giving us background of Samuel Beckett. Esslin wrote the Beckett often wonderd, "Who Am I?" Which Esslin infers that Beckett's anguish of identity often come across in his work. "Murphy and Eleuthria (Beckett's first play, which at the time was still unplublished and unperformed) mirror Beckett's search for freedom and the right to live his own life" (Esslin, 17). However, I think that Esslin should have gone it to greater deatil as to why he thinks that especially since according to him, Beckett's work refers to his life. It isn't until later in the chapter that he elaborates on this idea. Esslin writes, "The experience expressed in Beckett's plays is of far more profound and fundamental nature than mere autobiography. They reveal his experience of temporality and evanescense; his sense of the tragic difficulty of becoming aware of one's own self in the merciless process of renovation and destruction that occurs with change in time; of the difficulty of communication between human being; of the unending quest for reality in a world in which everything is uncertain and the borderline between dream and waking is ever shifting; of the tragic nature of all love relationships and the selfdeception of friendship, and so on" (47-48).

That realates very well to Beckett's Play, because it involves all of those apsects or iedas through the three characters. Especially because not only are the characters of Play dead, but there is the husband, his wife, and his mistress who are creepily aware of each others presence (Esslin, 59).

Sources:
Esslin, Martin. Theatre of the Absurd: Revised Updated Version. Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press, 1973.

Timeline of Beckett's "Play"

1906 Apr 13, 1906 - Theatre companies around the world are celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett's birth. Born on April 13, 1906, Samuel Beckett became one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. To celebrate the writer's centenary ...Theatre companies around the world are celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett's birth. Born on April 13, 1906, Samuel Beckett became one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. To celebrate the writer's centenary, BH Productions, a not-for-profit theatre company based in Seoul, has decided to stage Beckett's most celebrated play, "Waiting for Godot."

1986 Apr 13, 1986 - And it is that image that will be brought to life on a Chicago stage this week, as the Goodman Theater presents Samuel Beckett's lyrical tragicomedy, ... Seeing a Beckett play is like sitting at a window and watching the world move in its peculiar and endlessly variable ways.

1996 Aug 4, 1996 - A 1967 staging of Beckett's "Play," which she performed in at the American Center in Paris, in fact, later became part of the 1975 bill of ... PHOTO: TOUGH ACT: "The precision is part of the challenge," Maleczech (in her Winnie garb) says of Samuel Beckett's works.

2000 Dec 9, 2000 - That is all there is, in essence, to Samuel Beckett's Play, first performed in Britain at the Old Vic in 1964. Anthony Minghella has recently filmed Play, with Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliet Stephenson and Alan Rickman, as part of a project to film all 19 Beckett plays.

Sources:
http://www.google.com/search?q=history+of+Samuel+Beckett

UMBC Department of theatre: Maryland Stage Company-"Review" of Beckett's "Play"

2000
Play, That Time, and Ohio Impromptu
by Samuel Beckett
All plays directed by Xerxes Mehta

“ ‘ A Director staging Beckett is, although committed to the prescriptions, rather free,’ notes the American director, Xerxes Mehta, also the president-elect of the International Beckett Society. His interpretation with the Maryland Stage Company of three one act plays (Play, That Time and Ohio Impromptu) was with out a doubt the high point of the festival thus far: chilling terror of form yet a soft actor’s touch. Marek Kedzierski, a polish director and co-director of the festival, called these hard core Beckett drills the Americans were performing ‘High Tech-Purgatory.’ Mehta’s interpretation of Play, which deals with the tortures of jealousy, is cool, funny and very fast. The three faces of the characters (two women and one man), placed in human-sized urns, are carved out of the total darkness of the stage, by cold, white light. The spotlights cue the delivery of lines at great speeds and the manic repetition of everlasting fresh pain….Mehta and company succeed at a frighteningly fascinating radicalization. Next to Play, The Maryland Stage Company performed an enchanting version of Beckett’s most beautiful, most tender, yet saddest play Ohio Impromptu. Anyone who missed these performances and who loves theatre should consider jetting to Baltimore, Maryland to see these astounding theatre artists on home turf.”
Peter Laudenbach, Berliner Tagesspiegel (2000)

“As a long time follower of productions of Samuel Becket’s plays throughout Europe and the United States, I don’t normally go to Beckett festivals expecting much that is fresh or eye-opening. The Maryland Stage Company productions of Samuel Beckett’s Play, That Time and Ohio Impromptu, directed by Xerxes Mehta, however, were standout achievements in the l0-day festival ‘Beckett in Berlin 2000. All were jewels of precision and perception, shedding more substantial light on Beckett’s humor, poetry and rigorous theatrical means than any of the other productions (many by famous Beckett specialists) … The Maryland Stage Company’s work should be considered in the first rank of Beckett performance …”
Jonathan Kalb, Associate Professor of Theater at Hunter College, City University of New York. (2000)

“Amid the rich and diverse theater and discussion offered at the seven day symposium and fortnight-long theater festival dubbed ‘Beckett in Berlin 2000’ in September of 2000, a pair of productions in what may be Samuel Beckett’s most technically demanding theater work, Play, stole the show. The first was Xerxes Mehta’s staging at the Akademie der Kunste on l8 September with Wendy Salkind, Peggy Yates, and Bill Largess. It was so stunning an achievement…. Mehta’s production of Play made no concession on the speed of delivery, no concession on the da capo, and so may be the first English language production to get the details right and thus to allow the full dramatic impact of this play to come through. It is testimony, yet again, that staging Beckett Beckett’s way, and getting it right, down to the finest details, produces an extraordinary evening of theatre.”
S.E. Gontarski, Journal of Beckett Studies (2000)

Sources:
http://www.umbc.edu/theatre/msc_productions.html

Video of "Play"