The sixty-first TV show: #602 Beckett on Film
Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot has always fascinated me as far as its concept goes, even if I hadn't had a chance to actually watch it yet. So to see it come up as the next TV show from our bucket made me quite happy.
What we went on was a mixed journey, with some engaging plays (Play and Come and Go come to mind, as well the first Act Without Words) and some that seemed pointless (like Endgame). The latter is probably the most interesting, as it highlights the problems I find with the work. The wordiness wouldn't necessarily be too bad, but being wordy while also at time nonsensical means that I lose interest fairly quickly. The absurd staging - or lack of staging altogether - doesn't help there either, and a lot of the quality here came, to me, from whether the actors and director managed to do it well. This didn't always come down to the usual suspects either, but it seems to be down more to whether it all lined up right.
It's been worth seeing, from a cultural growth point, to understand post war play writing and culture, and the dedication of the actors add to that, but it feels like there are times where Beckett's rules for staging constrained the medium and others where it just isn't htat good.
The general rule here was shorter is better. The monologues work well when not too long, and more players tend to make slightly more interesting plays (although this isn't quite as universal). It's when it drags and gives you too many strands to follow - often, it seems, with half of them unneeded or unclear - that it falls flat. The genius is in here, but it doesn't necessarily work, or at least work as a television series. Maybe, for plays, you do need the captive audience of the theatre.