DOCSLIB.ORG

(1977), ... but the Clouds ... (1977), Quad (1980/81), Nacht Und Träume (1983), and What Where (1985) Is Characterized by the Technique of Reduction

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
(1977), ... but the Clouds ... (1977), Quad (1980/81), Nacht Und Träume (1983), and What Where (1985) Is Characterized by the Technique of Reduction QUADRAT 1 + 2 AS A TELEVISION PLAY The se ries of Beckett's television-plays (Eh Joe (1966), Not I (produced by BBC2 and SDR, Süddeutscher Rundfunk, in 1977), Ghost Trio (1977), ... but the clouds ... (1977), Quad (1980/81), Nacht und Träume (1983), and What Where (1985) is characterized by the technique of reduction. In What Where (the 'stage play') the characters move a Httle bit when entering or leaving the stage, in Was Wo as a TV play, however, there is no longer any movement. The characters do not enter the stage, they are merely illuminated, more accurately, only their faces are illuminated. What Where was first performed at Graz in 1983 and broadcast as a TV play, entitled Was Wo, by SDR in 1985 under the direction of Samuel Beckett and Walter Asmus. In Not I nothing but a mouth, which speaks, can be seen. The earlier work Play, which already is characterized by reduction, has been further reduced to one person, one face, one mouth. The character named "Mouth" becomes in the TV play literally a "mouth," that is, an illuminated section of a face in the dark. This transformance of a character on the stage into a pure image reflects the difference between stage play and 'motion picture,' or rather stage play and television screen. What Where is similar to Not I in the sense that it is a motionless 'moving picture' showing nothing but illuminated faces wh ich speak. In Quad, however, moving dominates and language is reduced to nothing: the characters move, but do not speak. In What Where, more accurately, in Was Wo, the German version for television, and in Not I they speak, but do not move. The technique Beckett uses in his late anti-dramatic 'microdramas' or 'dramaticules' consists of reducing human behaviour to certain isolated features. Because of the limited extensions of the TV screen, Beckett uses elose-ups and captures details. Quad is followed by Nacht und Träume, a motionless 'silent film,' a sort of painting on the screen, a pure image on an imaginary sheet, on the sheet of the imaginary; one of the last of Beckett's lifelong anticipations of death. In Play and What Where we are - as in Sartre's Huis elos - confronted with 'dead' people ("We are the last five./ In then present as were we still" utters the "Voice of Bam").l Quad, however, does not show 'dying' or dead people, it shows 'lively' people, but in a negative sense: in the sense of a hectic and futile life. Quad conveys the connotation of hasty, nervous and compulsive behaviour, of monotonous and joyless activities which are continually repeated. Jim Lewis spoke (with particular respect to part one of Quadrat 1+ Il) of "feverish monotony. ,,2 Quad, as a 'dramaticule' for four characters, no longer deals - like Krapp's Last Tape, and Not I - with an individual or with a group of acquaintances (like Play, Eh Joe, Come and Go). It is a sort of parable about society - society as an ensemble of 'monads.' The four figures mean more than just four individuals. Their allegorical quality comes to one's mind especially because there is no interaction and no communication; interaction, however, has, up to Quad been the basis of all plays with more than one person. Quadrat 1 + 2 as a Television Play. Quadrat I+II was first written under the title Quad in 1980, then directed, slightly changed, and extended (a second part was added) by Beckett for SDR in 1981. Quadrat 1+ II differs from the script entitled Quad (which we still may call a 'play-script' although it was in fact written for television) in that it exists only as a 'moving picture.' A play-script is no longer the basis of the film, for Quadrat consists of written images; the camera is now the 'writing instrument.' This is certainly true for the second part of Quadrat, which was added by Beckett during the SDR television production at Stuttgart. Part I, to a great extent, still follows the 'play-script' (though even part I has cuts at the beginning and the end, so that we get the impression that Quadrat I is a sort of 'snapshot') in the sense of a short sequence of 'moving pictures' representing a small part of a longer-Iasting activity. This impression would be impossible to convey by Quad as stage play (even if it also had cuts). Quadrat I does not show the complete four "courses" of the four "players" named 1, 2, 3 and 4, leading 1 from A to C, etc. Quadrat I shows 1, 2, 3 and 4 in coloured gowns: white, yellow, blue and red, as the 'play-script' indicates; but it does not begin, as the script would have it, with course 1 of player 1. It beg ins in the middle 0/ the action by showing two players (the last parts of the "4th series"); we are made to believe that the film has cut out apart of a continuous and endless or 'eternal' movement; and Quadrat I ends in the middle of the action of four players (though in the script we can read: "Without interruption begin repeat and fade out on 1 pacing alone").3 In the TV realization the percussionists on the stage disappear and the black curtains become invisible. They merge with the black background framing the quadrangle. The square loses its character of being placed on the stage. It looks likea thin plane suspended in the air, a plane in 336 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Wordback to CONTENTS P AGE 1 WHA T IS the WORD P an P AN
    WHAT IS THE WORD WHAT PAN PAN PAN BACK TO CONTENTS PAGE 1 WHaT WOrD IS THE WHAT IS THE WORD WHAT PAN PAN PAN BACK TO CONTENTS PAGE 2 COnTEnTS WHAT IS THE WORD WHAT CONTENTS Contents Essay 4 Poems 8 Creatives 13 Creative Biographies 15 Speaker Biographies 20 CONTENTS BACK TO Pan Pan 32 PAGE 3 PAGE WHAT IS THE WORD WHAT Once more, with colour by Nicholas Johnson Speaking from experience, not everyone is overjoyed by an invitation to a poetry performance. It is not a clearly defined event with formal conditions: it could lead to a wide range of possible outcomes and feelings in the listener. The bardic tradition that sweeps across human cultures and histories — from the Homeric ESSAY epics to the Sufis, from the biwa hoshi of Japan to the filí of Ireland — shows both the depth and breadth of the human impulse to hear verse aloud. But in our cosmopolitan present, poetry being “voiced” could run the gamut from adolescent (painful sincerity at an open mic) to adult (earnest readings at university book launches) to transhuman (Black Thought’s ten-minute freestyle). Though poetry always transports us somewhere, the destination could be anywhere in Dante’s universe: infernal, purgatorial, or paradisiacal. This particular poetry performance is, perhaps fittingly for the year 2020, set in that everyday limbo that is the cinema. It is consciously conceived for the large-scale screen — a crucial gesture, when so much life is being lived on small screens — and as a physical, collective experience, with an audience in plush CONTENTS BACK TO seats, bathed in light, feeling the powerful surround-sound system within their bodies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Evocation of the Physical, Metaphysical, and Sonic Landscapes in Samuel Beckett's Short Dramatic Works
    Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Senior Theses and Projects Student Scholarship Spring 2012 The Evocation of the Physical, Metaphysical, and Sonic Landscapes in Samuel Beckett's Short Dramatic Works Theresa A. Incampo Trinity College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses Part of the Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Performance Studies Commons, and the Theatre History Commons Recommended Citation Incampo, Theresa A., "The Evocation of the Physical, Metaphysical, and Sonic Landscapes in Samuel Beckett's Short Dramatic Works". Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2012. Trinity College Digital Repository, https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/209 The Evocation of the Physical, Metaphysical and Sonic Landscapes within the Short Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett Submitted by Theresa A. Incampo May 4, 2012 Trinity College Department of Theater and Dance Hartford, CT 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 5 I: History Time, Space and Sound in Beckett’s short dramatic works 7 A historical analysis of the playwright’s theatrical spaces including the concept of temporality, which is central to the subsequent elements within the physical, metaphysical and sonic landscapes. These landscapes are constructed from physical space, object, light, and sound, so as to create a finite representation of an expansive, infinite world as it is perceived by Beckett’s characters.. II: Theory Phenomenology and the conscious experience of existence 59 The choice to focus on the philosophy of phenomenology centers on the notion that these short dramatic works present the theatrical landscape as the conscious character perceives it to be. The perceptual experience is explained by Maurice Merleau-Ponty as the relationship between the body and the world and the way as to which the self-limited interior space of the mind interacts with the limitless exterior space that surrounds it.
    [Show full text]
  • Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
    PROSCENIUM Waiting For Godot By Samuel Beckett Waiting For Godot For Waiting Wednesday 16th January to Saturday 19th January 2008 Compass Theatre, Ickenham PROSCENIUM Waiting For Godot By Samuel Beckett Waiting For Godot For Waiting Wednesday 16th January to Saturday 19th January 2008 Compass Theatre, Ickenham WAITING FOR GODOT The Author 1906 Born on Good Friday, April 13th, at Foxrock, near Dublin, son of a quantity surveyor. Both parents were Protestants. BY SAMUEL BECKETT 1920-3 Educated at Portora Royal School, Ulster. 1923-7 Trinity College, Dublin. In BA examinations placed first in first class in Modern Literature (French and Italian). Summer 1926: first contact with France, a bicycle tour of the chateaux of the Loire. 1927-8 Taught for two terms at Campbell College, Belfast. CAST: 1928-30 Exchange lecturer in Paris. Meets James Joyce. 1930 First separately published work, a poem Whoroscope. Four terms as assistant lecturer in French, Trinity College, Dublin. Estragon.....................................................................................................Duncan Sykes Helped translate Joyce’s Anna Livia Plurabella into French. 1931 Performance of first dramatic work, Le Kid, a parody sketch Vladimir ................................................................................................ Mark Sutherland after Corneille. Proust, his only major piece of literary criticism, Pozzo .............................................................................................................. Robert Ewen published.
    [Show full text]
  • TV As the Convergence Catalyst, the Road to Quad-Play
    TV, the Telco way TV, the Telco way TV as the Convergence netgem.com netgem.com catalyst, the Road to netgem netgem Quad-Play TV, the Telco way TV, the Telco way netgem.com netgem.com netgem netgem TV, the Telco way TV, the Telco way Summary There is a lot of activity in advanced markets focussed on the roll out or promotion of TV services to support triple and quad-plays. Quad-playnet is gema term that.com has been around a while but actually netit gem.com is early days in this space - less than 5% of the global population receive quad-play services from a single provider. “The greatest change in corporate culture - and the way business is being conducted - may be Quad-play provision is growing fast. A lot of attention has been the accelerated growth of relationships based... focused on large acquisitions by Tier 1 Telcos. In reality, these on partnership.” Peter F. Drucker acquisitions are generally more about consolidation than delivering quad-plays.net Thisgem paper explains why for most Telcos looking atnet TV, gem acquisition or building a service from scratch will neither be a viable, nor the best route, to deliver a compelling TV service. Partnering is normally the best route to market. Given there are many different constituent parts to a TV service, Telcos need to think through how best to partner to launch a TV service and then run the TV service. Opting for a full managed service - (or ‘TV as a Service’) TV, the Telco way TV, the Telco way is the best route for many Telcos.
    [Show full text]
  • What Are They Doing There? : William Geoffrey Gehman Lehigh University
    Lehigh University Lehigh Preserve Theses and Dissertations 1989 What are they doing there? : William Geoffrey Gehman Lehigh University Follow this and additional works at: https://preserve.lehigh.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Gehman, William Geoffrey, "What are they doing there? :" (1989). Theses and Dissertations. 4957. https://preserve.lehigh.edu/etd/4957 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Lehigh Preserve. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Lehigh Preserve. For more information, please contact [email protected]. • ,, WHAT ARE THEY DOING THERE?: ACTING AND ANALYZING SAMUEL BECKETT'S HAPPY DAYS by William Geoffrey Gehman A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Committee of Lehigh University 1n Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts 1n English Lehigh University 1988 .. This thesis 1S accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. (date) I Professor 1n Charge Department Chairman 11 ACD01fLBDGBNKNTS ., Thanks to Elizabeth (Betsy) Fifer, who first suggested Alan Schneider's productions of Samuel Beckett's plays as a thesis topic; and to June and Paul Schlueter for their support and advice. Special thanks to all those interviewed, especially Martha Fehsenfeld, who more than anyone convinced the author of Winnie's lingering presence. 111 TABLB OF CONTBNTS Abstract ...................•.....••..........•.•••••.••.••• 1 ·, Introduction I Living with Beckett's Standards (A) An Overview of Interpreting Winnie Inside the Text ..... 3 (B) The Pros and Cons of Looking for Clues Outside the Script ................................................ 10 (C) The Play in Context ..................................
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Intuition/Image/Event: 'Beckett's Peephole' As Audio
    Notes Introduction: Intuition/Image/Event: ‘Beckett’s Peephole’ as Audio- Visual Rhizome 1. The quote is from Beckett’s The Unnamable. 2. Beckett first outlines this concept in his 1932 novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, where the character Belacqua desires to write a book whereby ‘The experience of my reader shall be between the phrases, in the silence, communicated by the intervals, not the terms, of the statement.’ Beckett (1992), p. 138. 3. I will discuss this distinction in Chapter 1. 4. See Uhlmann (1999), specifically chapter 2; (2004), pp. 90–106; and (2006). 1 Thinking the Unthinkable: Time, Cinema and the Incommensurable 1. They could thus be said to be more ‘thallic’ than ‘phallic’, horizontally fugitive rather than vertically hierarchical, molecular rather than molar. On the ‘ thallic’, see Weber (1982), pp. 65–83. 2. The Proustian implications of this temporal multiplicity are obvious, although Proust, like Beckett, is less concerned with duration, the past-present’s ability to ‘move on’ as becoming- future, than with the role of memory as a means of destroying the pernicious influence of habit. His distinction between voluntary and involuntary memory is predicated on a desire to preserve lost time as it survives in itself, the better to regain it for ourselves as art. 3. See Bellour (1977), pp. 66–91; (1986), pp. 66–101. 4. The reference to Wim Wender’s Falsche Bewegung (1975) is not uncoincidental. Wenders is paradigmatic of one aspect of the crystal- image in Cinema 2. See pp. 76–8. 5. For Nietzsche’s eternal return as an affirmation of difference, see Deleuze (1983).
    [Show full text]
  • Samuel Beckett and Intermedial Performance: Passing Between
    Samuel Beckett and intermedial performance: passing between Article Accepted Version McMullan, A. (2020) Samuel Beckett and intermedial performance: passing between. Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui, 32 (1). pp. 71-85. ISSN 0927-3131 doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/18757405-03201006 Available at http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/85561/ It is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from the work. See Guidance on citing . To link to this article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18757405-03201006 Publisher: Brill All outputs in CentAUR are protected by Intellectual Property Rights law, including copyright law. Copyright and IPR is retained by the creators or other copyright holders. Terms and conditions for use of this material are defined in the End User Agreement . www.reading.ac.uk/centaur CentAUR Central Archive at the University of Reading Reading’s research outputs online Samuel Beckett and Intermedial Performance: Passing Between Anna McMullan Professor in Theatre, University of Reading [email protected] This article analyses two intermedial adaptations of works by Beckett for performance in relation to Ágnes Petho’s definition of intermediality as a border zone or passageway between media, grounded in the “inter-sensuality of perception”. After a discussion of how Beckett’s own practice might be seen as intermedial, the essay analyses the 1996 American Repertory Company programme Beckett Trio, a staging of three of Beckett’s television plays which incorporated live camera projected onto a large screen in a television studio. The second case study analyses Company SJ’s 2014 stage adaptation of a selection of Beckett’s prose texts, Fizzles, in a historic site-specific location in inner city Dublin, which incorporated projected sequences previously filmed in a different location.
    [Show full text]
  • 'One Other Living Soul': Encountering Strangers in Samuel Beckett's Dramatic Works
    Andrew Goodspeed (Macedonia) ‘one other living soul’: Encountering Strangers in Samuel Beckett’s Dramatic Works This essay seeks to explore an admittedly minor area of the study of Samuel Beck- ett’s drama – the encounter with strangers, and one’s relations with strangers. It is the rarity of such situations that makes it perhaps worth investigating, because these encoun- ters shed light on Beckett’s more general dramatic concerns. As is well acknowledged, Beckett’s theatrical work tends to focus on small groups in close and clear relations with one another, or indeed with individuals enduring memories or voices that will not let them rest (here one might nominate, as examples, Eh Joe or Embers). Setting aside those indi- viduals, the tight concentration of Beckett’s writing upon a few individuals in a specific relation to one another – as in perhaps Come and Go or Play—is one of the playwright’s most common dramatic elements, and likely represents an aspect of his famous efforts towards concentration and compression of dramatic experience. By studying the opposite of these instances, particularly when his characters encounter or remember encountering strangers, this paper hopes to gain some insight upon the more general trends of Beckett’s stagecraft and dramatic themes. It should be acknowledged at the outset, however, that there are a number of am- biguous situations in Beckett’s drama relating to the question of how closely individuals know or relate to one another. A simple survey of people who are obviously strangers or are clearly known to one another is not easily accomplished in Beckett’s drama.
    [Show full text]
  • Transcript of Samuel Beckett: a Conversation, with Ian Rickson, and Mark Taylor-Batty, at the Minghella Building, University of Reading, October 3Rd 2013, 7.30Pm
    Transcript of Samuel Beckett: A Conversation, with Ian Rickson, and Mark Taylor-Batty, at the Minghella Building, University of Reading, October 3rd 2013, 7.30pm. Please note that this transcript has been lightly edited by Anna McMullan, Ian Rickson, and Mark Taylor-Batty. Welcome and Introduction by Sir David Bell, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading. My name is David Bell and I am the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this event this evening and to those of you who are visiting the university for the very first time, a special welcome. We are celebrating both the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Beckett International Foundation and the launch of a new Beckett research project. Although I promise not to keep you too long this evening because you are all eagerly waiting the main event I think it is just important to spend a moment or two describing a little bit about our Beckett history, decidedly one of the most significant jewels in the University's crown, our Beckett archive, itself set up in 1971. I guess that was the first step in the beginning of our now proud and internationally renowned presence in the Beckett world. Now the world's largest collection of resources related to Samuel Beckett, this archive is recognised as being of national and international importance by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. It was created by a small team of passionate Beckett scholars; spear-headed, I think it's fair to say, by the now Emeritus Professor James Knowlson and Jim is here this evening with us.
    [Show full text]
  • Eh Joe E Ohio Impromptu: Self-Representation and Self-Responsibility in Samuel Beckett’S Drama
    EH JOE E OHIO IMPROMPTU: SELF-REPRESENTATION AND SELF-RESPONSIBILITY IN SAMUEL BECKETT’S DRAMA. Maria Margarida C. P. Costa Pinto - Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, UFP Assistent ABSTR A CT In this paper one will be arguing that Beckett, both in the content and form of his writing, points humankind towards help. From the point of view of content, it will analyse Eh Joe (published in 1967) and Ohio Impromptu (published in 1982). Simultaneously, and to look at the form, the power of Beckett’s writing, one will focus on the immanence of the present mo- ment, the moment into which time has collapsed, the moment in which one can accept both the futility of going on and the necessity of going on, the acceptance of the responsibility. Resumo O presente artigo irá abordar simultaneamente o conteúdo e a forma da escrita becketti- ana, assim avançando indicações para o auxílio da Humanidade. Sob o ponto de vista do conteúdo, serão analisadas as peças Eh Joe (publicada em 1967) e Ohio Impromptu (publi- cada em 1982). Simultaneamente, e atendendo à forma, a força da escrita de Beckett, será focada a imanência do momento presente, o momento no qual o tempo entrou em colapso, o momento em que se aceita quer a futilidade de continuar e a necessidade de continuar, a aceitação da responsabilidade. I Part of the appeal of Beckett’s plays is that he evokes so compellingly the destruction of the connection and continuities between past, present and future in contemporary life. It is a destruction one may understand to be not only a self-defence, avoiding the greater pain that connection can threaten with, the pain of guilt, hurt or longing, but also a re- sponse to living in the pre-apocalyptic age.
    [Show full text]
  • A High Street Renaissance
    Arts Council England A High Street Renaissance How arts and culture bring people and pride back to our high streets 5 August 2021 Credits Written and prepared by Jonathan Todd and Jay Rowe, BOP Consulting With thanks to Adam Buss (Derby QUAD), Victoria Pomery (Turner Contemporary), Gemma Thomas (Appetite), Annabel Turpin (ARC Stockton Arts Centre), Dylan Tozer and Edward Borlase (Theatre Royal Plymouth), and Patrick Fox (Heart of Glass) for assistance with case studies Data credits Polling data from Deltapoll; data on location of funded organisations from Arts Council England Image credits Front cover: Andrew Moore. Photo of DIY Dance Together. Part of Shop Front Festival 2018 in Coventry __ i Contents Figure 6 Cultural experiences on local high street or nearest town centre make Executive Summary .............................................................................. 1 local areas better places to live (% of respondents, all UK adults) ...................... 9 1. Culture: High Street Presence ......................................................... 2 Figure 7 Preferences for visiting local the high street or nearest town centre over coming years (% of respondents, all UK adults) ........................................ 10 2. High Street Footfall and Spend ........................................................ 3 Figure 8 Desire and expectations of local high streets or nearest town centre 3. Civic Pride ......................................................................................... 5 over coming years (% of respondents,
    [Show full text]
  • Filmography V6.Indd
    a filmography Foreword by The Irish Film Institute For over 60 years, the Irish Film Institute has been dedicated to the promotion of film culture in Ireland and therefore is proud to present this filmography of Samuel Beckett’s work. Beckett remains one of Ireland’s most important and influential artists and Samuel Beckett – A Filmography provides a snapshot of the worldwide reach and enduring nature of his creativity. As part of the Beckett centenary celebrations held in April 2006, the Irish Film Institute organised a diverse programme of films relating to the work of Beckett, including a tour of the line-up to cinemas around the country. Prior to this, the Irish Film Institute provided the unique opportunity to view all 19 films in the ‘Beckett on Film’ series by screening the entire selection in February 2001. This filmography provides the perfect accompaniment to these previous programmes and it illustrates that Beckett’s work will continue to be adapted for film and television worldwide for years to come. Photograph by Richard Avedon Samuel Beckett – A Filmography was made possible though the kind support of the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism and the Beckett Centenary Council and Festival Committee. Mark Mulqueen Director, The Irish Film Institute An Introduction Compiling a filmography of Beckett’s work is both a challenging and daunting prospect. It was important, from the outset, to set some parameters for this filmography. Therefore, to this end, I decided to focus on the key area of direct adaptations of Beckett’s work filmed for cinema or television.
    [Show full text]