Play (play)
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Play is a play by Samuel Beckett. It was written between 1962 and 1963 and first produced in German as Spiel on June 14, 1963 at the Ulmer Theatre in Ulm-Donau, Germany. The first performance in English was in 1964 at the Old Vic in London.
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Synopsis
Play.jpg
The curtain rises on two women and a man (referred to only as W1, W2, and M), in a row along the front of the stage with their heads sticking out of the tops of large urns, the rest of their bodies unexposed. They remain like this for the play's duration. At the commencement and the conclusion of the play, all three characters speak, in what Beckett terms a "chorus", but in the main the play is made up of short, sometimes broken sentences spoken by one character at a time. Over the course of the play, it becomes apparent that the man has betrayed one of the women by having an affair with the other. The three characters speak of the affair from their respective points of view on the matter, in an almost contrapuntal manner.
A spotlight is shone on whoever is speaking, leaving the other two characters in darkness. Beckett writes that this spotlight "provokes" the character's speech, and that a single, swivelling light should be used, rather than three lights switching on and off. In this manner the spotlight acts like an invisible interrogator.
Near the end of the script, there is the terse instruction: "Repeat play." Beckett elaborates on this in notes, by saying that the repeat might be varied, by changing the intensity of the light, giving a breathless quality to the lines, or even shuffling some of the lines around. At the end of this second repeat, the play appears to start again for a third time, but does not get more than a few seconds into it before it suddenly stops.
Interpretation
The final instruction has led to much conjecture as to why the play is repeated. One view is that M, W1, and W2 are in fact in Hell, and that they are left to go over and over, repeating the narration of their actions until they discover how to free themselves from the burden. Some interpret the light as representing the cruelty of God, who does not care what each person has to say.
Beckett on Film
A filmed version of Play was directed by Anthony Minghella for the Beckett on Film project, starring Alan Rickman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliet Stevenson. In this filmed version, the action takes place in a field of "urn people", all speaking at once. The characters look decrepit and abused: their faces appear to be rotting. For this particular interpretation of the play, it is assumed that the action takes place in Hell (perhaps in reference to Jean-Paul Sartre's famous assertation, "l'enfer, c'est les autre"). A camera is used instead of a stage light to provoke the characters into action; Minghella uses a jump-cut editing technique to make it seem as though there are even more than two repetitions of the text.
External links
- Text of the play (http://www.drama21c.net/text/play.htm)