Thanks to my local public library, I’ve been watching Beckett On Film, the anthology of all Samuel Beckett’s plays, filmed, each by a different director, in and around the year 2000. So far, I’ve only watched Rough for Theater I, Ohio Impromptu and Endgame. No sense in rushing it.
The problem with Beckett on Film, of course, is that it’s ... on film. And I don’t mean that the purity of Mr. Beckett’s vision has been smeared as you look through the lens of some director’s vision, which is true and all, but on the whole a Good Thing. No, the problem is that it’s on film. And worse, on video, which means that I’m watching it in the comfort of my living room, alone all alone, which is the worst way to watch one of Mr. Beckett’s play. And even if I gathered three or half-a-dozen Gentle Readers in my living room (surprisingly spacious and comfortable, bye-the-bye), we still would not constitute an Audience.
This is particularly deadly because Mr. Beckett is (wait for it) funny. Only not so much. Not so much, particularly, when one is alone all alone, or even with two or five friends. It takes an audience to laugh. More than that, it takes an audience to be funny. When Clov forgets the stepstool again, or when B smacks A with his cane, it ought to be funny, and it just ... isn’t. At most, there’s the sense that “ah, that’s funny”. But not. Laughter.
T’other hand, even if (for what reason I couldn’t guess) some misguided souls were to actually present, say, Rough for Theater I in some local hall, and even if (for what reason I couldn’t guess) some other misguided souls were to attend, enough even to make an Audience, you would not in all your life see interpretations of A and B so wonderful as those given by David Kelley and Milo O’Shea. This is the wonderful part of Beckett on Film, and the dispiriting part. I will (I’d be willing to wager) never see David Thewlis and Michael Gambon in Endgame, nor will I ever see anyone as good in either role. Does that make the film a success? Does it?
I wonder if actors like Samuel Beckett more than audience, anyway. There are such wonderful and frightening choices to make, as an actor. The lines are so open. There are so many different ways you can say the odd and banal little things the characters mouth, so many ways you can weight them, or lighten them. The actors carry the rhythm, and the rhythm carries the play. “Am I in the center?” “Am I in the center?” “Am I in the center?” Not to mention the way that the constraints Mr. Beckett puts on movement make the choices of individual movements so juicy. When Jeremy Irons turns the page of his book in Ohio Impromptu, you can imagine him deciding how to turn it, how his fingers should lie on the page, how he should touch the book. Trying different approaches. Quick, slow. Precise. Hesitant. Tender. Fearful. So much fun. You know, for an actor.
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.