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