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Beckett, belated
Apr. 14th, 2006 07:42 amRemarks on the centennial of Beckett's birth on many web journals yesterday, from George Hunka's SUPERFLUITIES to Tim Lucas's VIDEO WATCHBLOG. What else to say? The man is more important and brilliant than I think any of us have the ability to actually put into words, so why try?
I'd rather just insert the photo here I took at his grave at Montpernasse in Paris when I was there -- the big black simple slab, like the man's work, so minimal and perfect. But I can't find the photo and don't yet have the skill to put such things into my posts. So . . .
My favorite Beckett plays are PLAY, OHIO IMPROMPTU, ROCKABY, NOT I, and WHAT WHERE.
I'll have to watch all of the above plays (and a few more) later today -- I have the films on tape from the project they did a few years ago where they filmed all of his plays. Of course, filming Beckett plays, no matter how well done, still fits in the category of "doing well what ought not to be done at all," and I always feel a bit . . . wrong . . . watching these videos, thought I think most of them wound up being done quite well.
Okay, why? Well, SB wrote for the stage (and other media) very VERY specifically. His plays are designed to be done by actual bodies in a live space. His television plays are designed to be framed in an electronic screen. His filmscript is designed to be a film. His prose and poetry is designed to be read on a page, his radio plays to be heard. He knew how all of these media work (or don't work) and wrote perfectly within those media. Transferring work he wrote from the medium it was written for to another -- besides filming his plays, his prose and radio plays have been turned into stage plays -- is okay only on the level of, "by doing this adaptation, more people will be able to appreciate Beckett's work than would be able to otherwise." After all, while I'd read almost all of Beckett's plays, until the film project, I had seen only live productions of GODOT and NOT I. Now I've seen ALL of the plays performed in some way. Just not quite the right way.
More to say, more thoughts on SB's precision -- maybe some of the stories one of my sound design teachers at NYU, Everett Frost, told about working with SB on the radio plays; maybe some of my thoughts on how closely to follow SB's stage directions (A: EXACTLY, and without question) -- but not right now. I'm listening to the work disc of sound cues for part one of TWWHF, and it's inspiring me to do some real work on the show now.
Precision, though, that's what it all comes down to -- to be present with the correct gesture and absent with the wrong one (aware of the absence as much as the presence). Even in a show like the noisy comic book parody musical CAVEMAN ROBOT which we just opened last night, to be precise -- and by precise I don't mean here necessarily "clean and crisp" but "correct, what is NEEDED" -- in all aspects of your craft.
As I'm always telling my actors, the focus of a laser beam, not a shotgun.
I'd rather just insert the photo here I took at his grave at Montpernasse in Paris when I was there -- the big black simple slab, like the man's work, so minimal and perfect. But I can't find the photo and don't yet have the skill to put such things into my posts. So . . .
My favorite Beckett plays are PLAY, OHIO IMPROMPTU, ROCKABY, NOT I, and WHAT WHERE.
I'll have to watch all of the above plays (and a few more) later today -- I have the films on tape from the project they did a few years ago where they filmed all of his plays. Of course, filming Beckett plays, no matter how well done, still fits in the category of "doing well what ought not to be done at all," and I always feel a bit . . . wrong . . . watching these videos, thought I think most of them wound up being done quite well.
Okay, why? Well, SB wrote for the stage (and other media) very VERY specifically. His plays are designed to be done by actual bodies in a live space. His television plays are designed to be framed in an electronic screen. His filmscript is designed to be a film. His prose and poetry is designed to be read on a page, his radio plays to be heard. He knew how all of these media work (or don't work) and wrote perfectly within those media. Transferring work he wrote from the medium it was written for to another -- besides filming his plays, his prose and radio plays have been turned into stage plays -- is okay only on the level of, "by doing this adaptation, more people will be able to appreciate Beckett's work than would be able to otherwise." After all, while I'd read almost all of Beckett's plays, until the film project, I had seen only live productions of GODOT and NOT I. Now I've seen ALL of the plays performed in some way. Just not quite the right way.
More to say, more thoughts on SB's precision -- maybe some of the stories one of my sound design teachers at NYU, Everett Frost, told about working with SB on the radio plays; maybe some of my thoughts on how closely to follow SB's stage directions (A: EXACTLY, and without question) -- but not right now. I'm listening to the work disc of sound cues for part one of TWWHF, and it's inspiring me to do some real work on the show now.
Precision, though, that's what it all comes down to -- to be present with the correct gesture and absent with the wrong one (aware of the absence as much as the presence). Even in a show like the noisy comic book parody musical CAVEMAN ROBOT which we just opened last night, to be precise -- and by precise I don't mean here necessarily "clean and crisp" but "correct, what is NEEDED" -- in all aspects of your craft.
As I'm always telling my actors, the focus of a laser beam, not a shotgun.
