Beckett on Film
Encyclopedia
Beckett on Film was a project aimed at making film versions of all nineteen of Samuel Beckett
's stage play
s, with the exception of the early and unperformed Eleutheria
. This endeavour was successfully completed, with the first films being shown in 2001.
The project was conceived by Michael Colgan
, artistic director of Dublin's Gate Theatre
. The films were produced by Colgan and Alan Moloney for the Irish broadcaster RTÉ
, the British broadcaster Channel 4
and the Irish Film Board
. Each had a different cast and director, drawn from theatre, film and other fields.
Ten of the films were screened at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival
and some shown on Channel 4 television. On Wednesday, February 6, 2002, the series won the Best TV Drama award at the sixth The South Bank Show
awards at the Savoy Theatre
in London. The films never enjoyed a general cinematic release, but, in September 2001, all nineteen were screened at the Barbican Centre
in London. They were also released in a number of video
s and as a four-DVD
box set, comprising a souvenir programme and numerous additional features.
A documentary video, titled Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film and directed by Pearse Lehane, was released on 5 February 2003. It followed closely the project's work.
Waiting for Godot
The play was originally published in 1952
. Of directing the film version, Michael Lindsay-Hogg
said, "Beckett creates an amazing blend of comedy, high wit and an almost unbearable poignancy in a funny yet heartbreaking image of man's fate. With the camera, you can pick those moments and emphasise them, making Beckett's rare and extraordinary words all the more intimate [...]. The play is about what it is about. Samuel Beckett would have said it's about two men waiting on the side of the road for someone to turn up. But you can invest in the importance of who is going to turn up. Is it a local farmer? Is it God? Is it salvation? Or is it simply someone who just doesn't show up?
"The important thing is the ambiguity, the fact that it doesn't really state what it is. That's why it's so great for the audience to be part of it: they fill in a lot of the blanks; it works in their imaginations.
"For me, Beckett's view of the world is quite sadly accurate. We are all really just bugs in the carpet."
The cast was composed of the following:
Endgame
Original play published 1957.
Happy Days
Original play published 1960.
Act Without Words I
Original play written 1956.
Act Without Words II
Original play written 1956.
Krapp's Last Tape
Original play written 1958.
Rough for Theatre I
Original play written late 1950s.
Rough for Theatre II
Original play written late 1950s.
Play
Original play written 1963.
Come and Go
Original play written 1965.
Breath
Original play written 1969.
Not I
Original play written 1972.
That Time
Original play written 1975.
Footfalls
Original play written 1975.
A Piece of Monologue
Original play written 1980.
Rockaby
Original play written 1981.
Ohio Impromptu
Original play written 1981.
Catastrophe
Original play written 1982.
What Where
Original play written 1983.
For instance, Waiting for Godot
, Beckett's most popular and successful play, is highly dependent on the two main characters, Estragon and Vladimir, and their likeability. However, the humor of the characters' words was not as pronounced as some fans would have liked.
In general, though, reviews were more laudatory. Michael Dwyer, film correspondent of The Irish Times
dubbed it "Commendably ambitious and remarkably successful, a truly unique collection".
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
's stage play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
s, with the exception of the early and unperformed Eleutheria
Eleutheria (play)
Eleutheria is a play by Samuel Beckett, written in French in 1947. It was his first completed dramatic endeavor . Roger Blin considered staging it in the early fifties, but opted for Waiting for Godot, because it was easier to stage...
. This endeavour was successfully completed, with the first films being shown in 2001.
The project was conceived by Michael Colgan
Michael Colgan (theatre director)
Michael Colgan is a film and television producer and is also the Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre in Dublin.-Life and work:Born in Dublin in 1950, he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where, as a student, he became chairman of Trinity Players...
, artistic director of Dublin's Gate Theatre
Gate Theatre
The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...
. The films were produced by Colgan and Alan Moloney for the Irish broadcaster RTÉ
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...
, the British broadcaster Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
and the Irish Film Board
Irish Film Board
The Irish Film Board is Ireland’s national film agency and major film funding body. It was recommended for abolition by the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes in 2009.-Formative years:...
. Each had a different cast and director, drawn from theatre, film and other fields.
Ten of the films were screened at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival
2000 Toronto International Film Festival
The 2000 Toronto International Film Festival, the 25th annual festival, ran from September 7 to September 16, 2000. Along with special events to commemorate the anniversary, there were a total of 330 films screened. There was a special screening of Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky featuring...
and some shown on Channel 4 television. On Wednesday, February 6, 2002, the series won the Best TV Drama award at the sixth The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show was a television arts magazine show, originally made by London Weekend Television , presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV and seen in over 60 countries worldwide — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States...
awards at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
in London. The films never enjoyed a general cinematic release, but, in September 2001, all nineteen were screened at the Barbican Centre
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...
in London. They were also released in a number of video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
s and as a four-DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
box set, comprising a souvenir programme and numerous additional features.
A documentary video, titled Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film and directed by Pearse Lehane, was released on 5 February 2003. It followed closely the project's work.
Waiting for GodotWaiting for GodotWaiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
The play was originally published in 19521952 in literature
The year 1952, in literature involved some significant events and new literary publications.-Events:*J. L. Carr takes over as headmaster of Highfields Primary School, Kettering, which will eventually furnish the subject matter for his novel, The Harpole Report.*November 25 - Agatha Christie's play...
. Of directing the film version, Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Sir Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 5th Baronet is a British television and stage director and an occasional writer and actor.-Background and early work:...
said, "Beckett creates an amazing blend of comedy, high wit and an almost unbearable poignancy in a funny yet heartbreaking image of man's fate. With the camera, you can pick those moments and emphasise them, making Beckett's rare and extraordinary words all the more intimate [...]. The play is about what it is about. Samuel Beckett would have said it's about two men waiting on the side of the road for someone to turn up. But you can invest in the importance of who is going to turn up. Is it a local farmer? Is it God? Is it salvation? Or is it simply someone who just doesn't show up?
"The important thing is the ambiguity, the fact that it doesn't really state what it is. That's why it's so great for the audience to be part of it: they fill in a lot of the blanks; it works in their imaginations.
"For me, Beckett's view of the world is quite sadly accurate. We are all really just bugs in the carpet."
The cast was composed of the following:
- VladimirVladimir (Waiting for Godot)Vladimir is one of the two main characters from Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.- Personality :...
: Barry McGovernBarry McGovernBarry McGovern is an Irish stage, film and television actor. He was educated at Castleknock College, Dublin.-Background:McGovern is a former member of the RTÉ Players and the Abbey Theatre Company. He has worked in theatre, film, radio and television, as well as written music for many shows, and... - EstragonEstragonEstragon is one of the two main characters from Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. His name is the French word for tarragon.- The impulsive misanthrope :...
: Johnny Murphy - Pozzo: Alan StanfordAlan StanfordAlan Stanford is a well known Irish-based actor and director.-Personal life:Stanford has lived in Ireland since 1969. He trained as an actor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London....
- LuckyLucky (Waiting for Godot)Lucky is a character from Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. He is a slave to the character Pozzo.Lucky is unique in a play where most of the characters talk incessantly: he only utters two sentences . Lucky suffers at the hands of Pozzo willingly and without hesitation...
: Stephen Brennan - The Boy: Sam McGovern
- Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg
- Running Time: 2 hours
EndgameEndgame (play)Endgame, by Samuel Beckett, is a one-act play with four characters, written in a style associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. It was originally written in French ; as was his custom, Beckett himself translated it into English. The play was first performed in a French-language production at the...
Original play published 1957.- Hamm - Michael GambonMichael GambonSir Michael John Gambon, CBE is an Irish actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlowe in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as...
- Clov - David ThewlisDavid ThewlisDavid Thewlis is an English actor of stage and screen. His most commercially successful role to date has been that of Remus Lupin, in the Harry Potter film series...
- Nagg - Charles Simon
- Nell - Jean AndersonJean AndersonJean Anderson was an English actress born in Eastbourne, Sussex. She is best remembered for her television roles as hard-faced matriarch Mary Hammond in the 1970s BBC drama The Brothers and as rebellious aristocrat Lady Jocelyn "Joss" Holbrook in the 1980s Second World War series Tenko .She is...
- Directed by Conor McPhersonConor McPhersonConor McPherson is an Irish playwright and director.-Life and career:McPherson was born in Dublin, . He was educated at University College Dublin, McPherson began writing his first plays there as a member of UCD Dramsoc, the college's dramatic society, and went on to found Fly By Night Theatre...
- Running Time - 1 hour 24 minutes
Happy DaysHappy Days (play)Happy Days is a play in two acts, written in English, by Samuel Beckett. He began the play on 8 October 1960 and it was completed on 14 May 1961. Beckett finished the translation into French by November 1962 but amended the title...
Original play published 1960.- Winnie - Rosaleen LinehanRosaleen LinehanRosaleen Linehan is an Irish stage, screen and television actress.She has appeared in many comedy revues written by her husband Fergus...
- Willie - Richard JohnsonRichard Johnson (actor)Richard Johnson is an English actor, writer and producer, who starred in several British films of the 1960s and has also had a distinguished stage career. He most recently appeared in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.-Life and career:...
- Directed by Patricia RozemaPatricia RozemaPatricia Rozema is a Canadian film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Rozema was born in Kingston, Ontario and raised in Sarnia, Ontario. Her parents, Jacoba Berandina and Jan Rozema, were Dutch Calvinists. Television was severely restricted and she didn’t go to a movie theatre until she...
- Running Time - 1 hour 19 minutes
Act Without Words IAct Without Words IAct Without Words I is a short play by Samuel Beckett. It is a mime, Beckett's first . Like many of Beckett's works, the play was originally written in French , being translated into English by Beckett himself...
Original play written 1956.- Mime - Sean FoleySean Foley (comedian)Sean Foley is a British comedian and actor. With Hamish McColl, he forms the double-act The Right Size.-Theatre:*Freud in Hysteria *Matti in Mr Puntila and His Man Matti...
- Directed by Karel ReiszKarel ReiszKarel Reisz was a Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–war Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in 1950s and 1960s British cinema.-Early life:...
- Running Time - 16 minutes
Act Without Words IIAct Without Words IIAct Without Words II is a short mime play by Samuel Beckett, his second . Like many of Beckett's works, the piece was originally composed in French , then translated into English by Beckett himself. Written in the late fifties it opened at the Calderon Press Institute in Oxford and was directed by...
Original play written 1956.- A - Pat Kinevane
- B - Marcello Magni
- Directed by Enda Hughes
- Running Time - 11 minutes
Krapp's Last TapeKrapp's Last TapeKrapp's Last Tape is a one-act play, written in English, by Samuel Beckett. Consisting of a cast of one man, it was originally written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue"...
Original play written 1958.- Krapp - John HurtJohn HurtJohn Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
- Directed by Atom EgoyanAtom EgoyanAtom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...
- Running Time - 58 minutes
Rough for Theatre IRough for Theatre IRough for Theatre I is a one-act theatrical sketch by Samuel Beckett. Also known simply as Theatre I it began life originally in French in the late fifties as Fragment de théâtre and was later translated into English by Beckett himself. The first production was at the Schiller Theatre, Hamburg in...
Original play written late 1950s.- A - David KellyDavid Kelly (actor)David Kelly is an Irish actor, who has been in regular film and television work since the 1950s.-Acting career:Playing everything from Beckett to Shakespeare, he has appeared in Theatre, TV and film constantly since 1959...
- B - Milo O'SheaMilo O'Shea-Early life:He was born and raised in Dublin and educated by the Christian Brothers at Synge Street, along with his friend Donal Donnelly.He was discovered in the 1950s by Harry Dillon, who ran the "37 Theatre Club" on the top floor of his shop The Swiss Gem Company, 51 Lower O'Connell Street...
- Directed by Kieron J. Walsh
- Running Time - 20 minutes
Rough for Theatre IIRough for Theatre IIRough for Theatre II is a short play by Samuel Beckett. “Although this discarded piece of theatre is dated ‘circa 1960’ in End and Odds, a manuscript from two years earlier exists in Trinity College, Dublin, Library...
Original play written late 1950s.- A - Jim NortonJim Norton (actor)Jim Norton is an Irish character actor.-Performances:Jim Norton has been acting for over forty years in theatre, television, and movies, and frequently plays clergymen, most notably Bishop Brennan in the sitcom Father Ted, as well as in The Sweeney , Peak Practice , Sunset Heights , A Love Divided...
- B - Timothy SpallTimothy SpallTimothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...
- C - Hugh B. O'Brien
- Directed by Katie MitchellKatie MitchellKatrina Jane Mitchell OBE is an English theatre director. She is an Associate of the Royal National Theatre.-Life and career:Mitchell was raised in Hermitage, Berkshire and educated at Oakham School. Upon leaving Oakham she went up to Magdalen College, Oxford to read English...
- Running Time - 30 minutes
PlayPlay (play)Play is a one-act play by Samuel Beckett. It was written between 1962 and 1963 and first produced in German as Spiel on 14 June 1963 at the Ulmer Theatre in Ulm-Donau, Germany, directed by Deryk Mendel, with Nancy Illig , Sigfrid Pfeiffer and Gerhard Winter...
Original play written 1963.- M - Alan RickmanAlan RickmanAlan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
- W1 - Kristin Scott ThomasKristin Scott ThomasKristin A. Scott Thomas, OBE is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient....
- W2 - Juliet StevensonJuliet StevensonJuliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, CBE is an English actor of stage and screen.- Early life :Stevenson was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth , a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevenson, an army officer. Stevenson's father was in the army and was posted to a new place every...
- Directed by Anthony MinghellaAnthony MinghellaAnthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007....
- Running Time - 16 minutes
Come and GoCome and GoCome and Go is a short play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in January 1965 and first performed at the Schillertheater, Berlin on 14 January 1966...
Original play written 1965.- Vi - Anna MasseyAnna MasseyAnna Raymond Massey, CBE was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner’s novel Hotel du Lac.-Early life:...
- Ru - Siân PhillipsSiân PhillipsJane Elizabeth Ailwên "Siân" Phillips, CBE, is a Welsh actress.-Early life:Phillips was born in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, the daughter of Sally , a teacher, and David Phillips, a steelworker-turned-policeman...
- Flo - Paola Dionisotti
- Directed by John Crowleyis
- Running Time - 8 minutes
BreathBreath (play)Breath is a notably short stage work by Samuel Beckett. An altered version was first included in Kenneth Tynan's revue Oh! Calcutta!, at the Eden Theatre in New York City on June 16, 1969. The UK premiere was at the Close Theatre Club in Glasgow in October 1969; this was the first performance of...
Original play written 1969.- Voice - Keith Allen
- Directed by Damien HirstDamien HirstDamien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
- Running Time - 45 seconds
Not INot INot I is a twenty-minute dramatic monologue written in 1972 by Samuel Beckett, translated as Pas Moi; premiere at the “Samuel Beckett Festival” by the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, New York , directed by Alan Schneider, with Jessica Tandy and Henderson Forsythe .-Synopsis:Not I takes place...
Original play written 1972.- Auditor/Mouth - Julianne MooreJulianne MooreJulianne Moore is an American actress and a children's book author. Throughout her career, she has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards....
- Directed by Neil JordanNeil JordanNeil Patrick Jordan is an Irish filmmaker and novelist. He won an Academy Award for The Crying Game.- Early life :...
- Running Time - 14 minutes
That TimeThat TimeFor the song "That Time" by Regina Spektor see Begin to HopeThat Time is a one-act play by Samuel Beckett, written in English between 8 June 1974 and August 1975...
Original play written 1975.- Listener and Voices - Niall BuggyNiall BuggyNiall Buggy is an Irish actor who has worked extensively on the stage and screen in Ireland, the UK and the US. Some of his more well known roles include the lead in Brian Friel's, Uncle Vanya, for which he won an Irish Theatre Award and an Olivier Award for Dead Funny...
- Directed by Charles Garrad
- Running Time - 20 minutes
FootfallsFootfallsFootfalls is a play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English, between 2 March and December 1975 and was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre as part of the Samuel Beckett Festival, on May 20, 1976 directed by Beckett himself. Billie Whitelaw, for whom the piece had been written, played...
Original play written 1975.- May - Susan FitzgeraldSusan FitzGeraldSusan FitzGerald is an Irish actress, best known for her work in television and her work in Irish theatre. She also played the role of May in Samuel Beckett's Footfalls for the Gate Theatre's Beckett on Film project...
- Voice - Joan O'HaraJoan O'HaraJoan O'Hara was an Irish stage, film and television actress. She was a member of the renowned Abbey Players and performed in many plays in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, including those by Seán O'Casey, Lady Gregory and W.B. Yeats...
- Directed by Walter Asmus
- Running Time - 28 minutes
A Piece of MonologueA Piece of MonologueA Piece of Monologue is a fifteen-minute play by Samuel Beckett. Written between 2 October 1977 and 28 April 1979 it followed a request for a “play about death” by the actor David Warrilow who starred in the premiere in the Annex at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, New York on 14 December...
Original play written 1980.- Speaker - Stephen BrennanStephen BrennanStephen Brennan is an Irish professional football player who currently plays for Bray Wanderers.Brennan played schoolboy football for south Dublin side St Josephs Boys AFC before joining English Premiership side Newcastle United in 1999. In November 2000 he was won the FAI's Republic of Ireland...
- Directed by Robin Lefevre
- Running Time - 20 minutes
RockabyRockabyRockaby is a short one-woman play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1980, at the request of Daniel Labeille, who produced it on behalf of Programs in the Arts, State University of New York, for a festival and symposium in commemoration of Beckett's 75th birthday...
Original play written 1981.- Woman - Penelope WiltonPenelope WiltonPenelope Alice Wilton, OBE is an English actress.-Life and career:Penelope Alice Wilton was born in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, to a former actress mother and a businessman father. She is a niece of actors Bill Travers and Linden Travers and a cousin of the actor Richard Morant...
- Directed by Richard EyreRichard EyreSir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre CBE is an English director of film, theatre, television, and opera.-Biography:Eyre was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset in south-west England, followed by Peterhouse at the University...
- Running Time - 14 minutes
Ohio ImpromptuOhio ImpromptuOhio Impromptu is a “playlet” by Samuel Beckett.Written in English in 1980, it began as a favour to S.E. Gontarski, who requested a dramatic piece to be performed at an academic symposium in Columbus, Ohio in honour of Beckett’s seventy-fifth birthday. Beckett was uncomfortable writing to order and...
Original play written 1981.- Reader and Listener - Jeremy IronsJeremy IronsJeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
- Directed by Charles SturridgeCharles SturridgeCharles B. G. Sturridge is an English screenwriter, producer, stage, television and film director.-Personal life:Sturridge was born in London, England to Alyson Bowman Vaughan and Jerome Sturridge. He was educated at Stonyhurst College...
- Running Time - 12 minutes
CatastropheCatastrophe (play)Catastrophe is a short play by Samuel Beckett, written in French in 1982 at the invitation of A.I.D.A. and “[f]irst produced in the Avignon Festival … Beckett considered it ‘massacred.’” It is one of his few plays to deal with a political theme and, arguably, holds the title of Beckett's most...
Original play written 1982.- P - John GielgudJohn GielgudSir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
- A - Rebecca PidgeonRebecca PidgeonRebecca Pidgeon is a British actress and singer-songwriter. She has maintained a recording career while also acting on stage and in feature films. She is married to the American writer and director David Mamet.-Early life:...
- D - Harold PinterHarold PinterHarold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
- L - ?
- Directed by David MametDavid MametDavid Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
- Running Time - 7 minutes
What WhereWhat WhereWhat Where is Samuel Beckett's last play produced following a request for a new work for the 1983 Autumn Festival in Graz, Austria. It was written between February and March 1983 initially in French as Quoi où and translated by Beckett himself....
Original play written 1983.- Bam - Sean McGinleySeán McGinleySeán McGinley is an Irish film and television actor.-Early life:McGinley was born in Pettigo, County Donegal, Ireland where his father was a customs officer, and raised in nearby Ballyshannon...
- Bem, Bim and Bom - Gary LewisGary Lewis (actor)Gary Lewis is a Scottish actor. He has had parts in Billy Elliot, Gangs of New York, Eragon and Three and Out, as well as a major role in the television docudrama, Supervolcano.-Early life:...
- Directed by Damien O'DonnellDamien O'DonnellDamien O'Donnell is an Irish film director and writer.He has directed East is East , Heartlands and Inside I'm Dancing , amongst others....
- Running Time - 12 minutes
Criticism
Many aspects of the plays' interpretations and performances have been critiqued by fans of Samuel Beckett, stating that not enough focus was placed on the words, and that many important aspects of the plays were lost because of it. Others have said that the plays were over-acted or over-directed, and that at times the cinematography was overdone. (The Checking the Gate documentary addresses some of the naysaying, allowing at least one knowledgeable critic to have his say.)For instance, Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
, Beckett's most popular and successful play, is highly dependent on the two main characters, Estragon and Vladimir, and their likeability. However, the humor of the characters' words was not as pronounced as some fans would have liked.
In general, though, reviews were more laudatory. Michael Dwyer, film correspondent of The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
dubbed it "Commendably ambitious and remarkably successful, a truly unique collection".