By Samuel Beckett

2001

Directed by Anthony Minghella

with Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson, and Kristen Scott-Tomas

The full text of Play can be found on line at http://www.drama21c.net/text/play.htm. New York Magazine says,

We see Play here, with Kristin Scott Thomas, Alan Rickman, and Juliet Stevenson sticking out of urns; it's electrifying, as if rap had been scored for severed heads.
The New York Times says about Play,
The director is Anthony Minghella, whose film of The English Patient received nine Oscars, including best picture and best director, and whose most recent movie is the seductive Patricia Highsmith adaptation, The Talented Mr Ripley. He has assembled a remarkably strong cast comprising Juliet Stevenson, Kristin Scott Thomas and Alan Rickman. "Anthony first directed Play when he was a student,"
The 2 June, 2001 issue of The Economist says,
Beckett’s less polished sketches seem to liberate cinematic ingenuity, where his more developed conceptions of theatricality can prove resistant to adaptation. Anthony Minghella’s “Play” attempts to compensate for the loss of the play’s interrogative spotlight with a drama of the camera’s focus and brief jump-cuts. The talents of Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson and Kristen Scott-Thomas nevertheless conspire with Mr Minghella’s bravura film-making technique to crush the play’s humours.
Play aired in the UK during July 2001. The PBS series Stage On Screen presented Beckett on Film on Sunday, September 15, 10-11:30PM.

The following were sent by Steff, with my thanks,

Interview:
Rickman on Beckett

'Having almost nothing at your disposal often produces the best work,' says Alan Rickman. 'All the information that you might need is there in the text, so you just get your miner's helmet on and go and look for it. Each really great text makes its own demands, and with this one you have to hand yourself over completely and trust that the director has done their homework and has a point of view.

'I have a copy of a letter which was given to me by a friend, to whom Beckett wrote about having attended some rehearsals. He wasn't that happy because he says in the letter: "I don't suppose they'll ever get the voice right." He said it should have an ashen, abstract quality. Ashen and abstract, I suppose, are two very difficult qualities to reproduce on stage, because they'd be inaudible. So it's great that his works are being put on film, and I'm sure Beckett would be happy too, because he's getting the vocal quality, hopefully, that's the one that's in his head. 'I get the impression that theatre sometimes frustrated him as much as it excited him. He always wanted to make it purer, purer, purer – it's almost like an installation, or performance art.

'Beckett tests the audience as much as the performers, and that's the whole point. Great writing is not meant to be a palliative. In the world that we live in, there are more and more palliatives, shorter and shorter attention spans, and the tragedy is that we will end up with a culture that is less and less able to respond to Beckett. The audience won't know that you have to do a bit of work to get into the play. As an audience member, you have to give yourself to the piece of work. It's not just going to come and stroke you.

'However good you are as an actor, you're never as good as the play. Actors are poor souls. We can only throw ourselves against the wall. Hope to stick a bit.'

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