We shall start the year off on a cheery note, by looking at Play by Samuel Beckett as our first article here at StageSideUK. This version of Play, directed by Anthony Minghella, is a recorded performance starring the late Alan Richman as man, Kristin Scott Thomas as first woman and Juliet Stevenson as second woman. The piece explores a rather interesting relationship, or the lack thereof, between three talking heads. The actors, usually on stage but for this piece are placed on what looks like a CGI (Computer Generated Image) background, only have their heads visible. Their bodies are hidden within large urns. The actors have their hair styled and special effects make up on to resemble decaying bodies.
The recording begins with a wide shot of many urns speaking all at once with laughter, hiccups and shouting occuring at, what seems to be, random intervals. The shot seems to capture miles of urns that are all spaced out, their bases being partially hidden by mist. The screen turns white then focuses on the characters in turn. The speech can only be described as three separate trains of thought with constant interruption and each character straying from the topic at hand multiple times. This leads to an interesting collage of the plot that occurs within the conversation, as the three roles overlap in speech and appear to end eachothers sentences. The audience is left never really knowing what occurred, unless they replayed the film over and over again or, unless they read the script for the piece. If the viewer was to read the script they would notice how strict the rules are for the original piece. Measurements are provided, to explain how spaced out the urns should be on a stage, as well as very explicit instructions on staging, appearance and lighting. The speech continues until they reach the end of the tale, and it seems like they start from the beginning again, in a continuous loop.
The image created is that of purgatory, a constant repetition of your life as the heads all recount the good, the bad and the ugly. They appear blank behind the eyes as if they have already been there for many years simply repeating the same monologues time and time again. I couldn’t help but feel somewhat responsible for their cyclic, existential torment. Especially with the piece being recorded, there are more connotations of voyeurism than if it were in a performance space, with live acting and sound.
This version of Play strikes two main issues for me. The first being the cast choice, and the second being the medium in which it is portrayed.
In my opinion, choosing Alan Richman to play ‘man’ confuses the meaning of the piece, as well as Beckett’s trademark of the removal of identity and confusion. The removal of identity is something Beckett does in other works such as Not I and Quad, yet selecting a rather well known actor, for me, defeats the point of the removal of identity that we get from a simple name such as man. The identity of ‘man’ is now Alan Richman. This, for me, stops the performance being ambiguous, as far as the character names being man and first woman, and instead tightens the lense onto the role of popularity as we view a tormented celebrity rather than a tormented man. This raises a question around theatrical performance in general, but specifically in line with popularity and commercialism. When casting for a theatre performance, how important do you think the popularity of certain individuals is to them securing the role? As in, if person A is a celebrity and person B isn’t and they both have perfect auditions, would person A be more likely to secure the role? Of course all involved in the piece are talented artists, and I am not implying that the role was not earned or that the actor has not worked hard for it. I am interested in the role of importance in casting, and wonder if this choice was made for popularity or for some other reason.
Even at the time the film was released, Richman was rather famous and so the combination of fame and unknown is jarring. But is this jarring effect what Minghella, and indeed Beckett in his writing, was going for? I suppose the deeper issue with this argument is that an individual is always going to be known. There is almost no legal way to ensure someone’s identity is kept hidden for their whole life. So the appearance of household names or celebrities is to be expected, in a pursuit of appreciation, artistic choice or commercial value.
The second issue I had with this piece is the medium in which it is presented.
This piece creates a very heavy atmosphere, that allows the audience to feel uncomfortable, irritated and intellectually stimulated all at the same time. I believe by removing the immediate audience presence from the action and speech, the atmosphere is diluted. Instead we find ourselves with subjective reactions, not based on our own personal opinions, but on the quality of the device we are playing the recording on.
Perhaps if the image was recorded and the piece was toured, with actors speaking live but off stage, we would have more of a feel for the piece. Instead of sitting isolated in our homes watching a prerecorded image and listening to recorded sound, we would be able to experience theatre with other individuals and react to live occurrences.
I know that live performances of Play have occured, but I am interested in this piece in particular being adapted for live performance. I think that would be an interesting experience. To see the rather popular celebrities faces with different voices in a performance venue, to me that is interesting.
What do you think? Do you think the popularity of an actor is an important factor in casting? Do you think that a combination of recorded and live performance would be interesting? Let me know in the comments.
Written by Jonathan Harper
Featured image provided by PEXELS
All opinions are my own, and they are just opinions. Any thoughts or opinions mentioned are not done so in any negative manner, and are not intended to be harmful in any way. Any mention of a name (actors, directors, designers or any other individual) is for reference only and they are not mentioned to offend or attach them to any beliefs or opinions that I have, they are merely used as references to explain my view point.
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Alyx Taylor-Scott