NPR: It all began last year, when the Library of Congress presented Samuel Beckett's Ohio Impromptu alongside a piece of music by composer Dina Koston, which responded to the text. A New York group, the Cygnus Ensemble, played the music, while Washington, D.C., director Joy Zinoman staged the play, for one night only.
6 comments:
I'm glad to see that every couple of months on the Green Page there is a post about the works of Samuel Beckett. It shows that he is an important modern playwright whose works and legacy will be with us for a while. (The fact that there is still interest in him proves this, not so much his involvement on the Green Page. Though who knows, perhaps there's a study to be done about the future of American theater and how it corresponds to the Green Page.) Anyway, it makes a lot of sense that music would be the focus for this production of Beckett's short works. His plays do have a rhythm to them, largely because he is such a stickler when it comes to dialogue and what stage directions could be followed. I once took an acting class about how to approach the absurd. One exercise we used was to find a piece of music that fit the tone of the scene and incorporate it into the performance. I would love to see these peformances and see whether the music chosen and written for these short pieces compliments or takes away from the work.
I think this is a great idea to use with Beckett's work. Beckett's work is so far out there that it can be difficult for an audience to relate to, or even just to understand. Pairing his work with an original musical composition composed in response to the work is another layer that can be added, which may just help the audience understand what's going on. Of the Beckett pieces I know, silence is used often as a part of the work. Pairing that silence with music could cause a juxtaposition that the audience may be able to understand better than Beckett's work on it's own.
I never hear about Beckett's work being performed anywhere near where I am, and I would love the opportunity to get to see something like this. Maybe this kind of work will encourage more people to see Beckett's work performed live.
I think the idea of having music played to Beckett's work is a great one. Music would take his already absurdist work to a different level of enlightenment, giving the text a new meaning. Because the music is being composed especially for each piece and by different composers, it offers even more opportunity for various audience members to interpret the text in the context they are most comfortable with, as not everyone takes the author's words in the same manner. Also, placing silent beats where there are beat changes in the dialogue is a great way to aid audience members make the transitions with the actors as the dialogue move through the play. It is a great way to bring together two art forms into one more piece while opening different avenues of interpretation for both mediums.
This a really curious idea. Music and theater seem to fit together so well that I am surprised that this idea was not done already. Also, I think it's cool that they decided to so a series of shorts. So many good shorts never have the chance to be exhibited to a broad audience because it is hard to find an audience willing to come, pay, and sit and watch a 15 minuet show. By finding ways to link the shorts (whether by music or by overlapping themas) it a nice way to bring shorts to a new audience. I also think the way they contrast silence and sound seems very interesting, especially the part about using one character saying nothing at all but the other character repeating himself every time the first man knocks.
I would love a chance to see this. The relationships with music and theatre that have developed over time have been interesting whether it inspires art, much like Wassily Kandinsky. So taking a piece of theatre and developing it into a piece of music seem like a reverse of what is typically done. The couple of Beckett plays I have read do seem to have a great overarching beat, much like the pacing as described. When it comes to the languages of Beckett's plays I can also see how the fluid language could be developed into a melody. This synthesis is a great idea and would love to try the same thing with a different playwright.
Beckett... this always brings me back to the Beckett Estate. Coming from an undergrad where everyone is interested in experimental theatre, Beckett was this mysterious and desirable entity that we always were interested in exploring, but never had the opportunity. The restrictions place on performing his works are almost ludicrous. It makes you wonder what it would be like if all scripts/institutions had such restraints. Regardless I'm interested and excited to how one goes about meshing Beckett and music
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