Beckett's plays are like no others. I think his repetitive use of language makes the audience really think about the words. He is really trying to say something with these plays, and having the actors repeat themselves multiple times resonates with the audience. That, along with other elements of course, is what adds to the frightening nature of the plays. Its scary to HAVE to think about the loneliness and heartbreak that Beckett covers in his scripts. We human beings have been pretty successful at blocking those parts out.
Monday, November 17, 2008
beckett and repetition
Zac mentioned the repetitive nature of Beckett's plays. I was thinking about it today when we were watching Krapp's Last Tape; the actor picked up, looked at, peeled, and ate the banana twice. He did it the same way each time, even though he was eating his second banana. As we talked about in class, parts of the play like this are comic relief; however, they are also a tad scary. There's also a lot of repetition in the stage directions as well as the dialogue he has with the tape and himself. The same is true for the play Meredith was in. The versions of Play I have seen have the actors do the first part and then repeat it all over again (as opposed to breaking it up). And, today, we talked about Rockabye, in which the actress repeats herself multiple times. Its all creepy, as we discussed in class, but why is it so eerie?
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3 comments:
This is a great observation. Beckett comes across as eerie because he is changing our perception of reality through repetition. Not to be pedantic, but it reminds me of some forms of transcendental meditation in which the participant says a word or phrase over and over until that word of phrase eliminates all other conscious thoughts. Beckett changes our consciousness for a while, and after it is over, our Western minds can best interpet the experience as "creepy."
I think that it comes off as eerie because it is something that we are not used to. As far as repetition goes, it's a great comedic tool to use. I noticed that he held the bananna the same way each time, so that the end faced the same way both times. And I believe it was the third time (comedy comes in threes) that he didn't eat the bananna, rather putting it in his pocket. I don't think that Krapp's Last Tape was creepy, but very thought provoking.
Rockabye on the other hand....
I agree with James that it comes off eerie because we are not used to it. This was my first time being exposed to Beckett's work and I was a little weirded out, but it kept my attention. In some ways, even if you don't get the point of what Beckett is doing, it does do what theatre is supposed to do: provoke thought. I am not exactly sure what I was supposed to be thinking, but I was definitely propelled to keep watching and come up with my own interpretation of what the purpose action was.
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