Film
A twenty-minute, almost totally silent film (no dialogue or music, one 'shhh!') in which Buster Keaton attempts to evade observation by an all-seeing eye. But, as the film is based around Bishop Berkeley's principle 'esse est percipi' (to be is to be perceived), Keaton's very existence conspires against his efforts. This was Samuel Beckett's only venture into the medium of cinema.
Casts & Crew
Also Directed by Alan Schneider
Two derelicts, Vladimir and Estragon, occupy themselves as they wait for 'Godot' to make an appearance on Pozzo's estate.
A one-woman play written by Samuel Beckett at the request of Daniel Labeille. The piece was produced by Labeille on behalf of the State University of New York's Programs in the Arts for a festival and symposium in commemoration of Beckett's 75th birthday (Wikipedia). A self-reflective drama of a figure, W, rocking "to and fro" in her dead mother's rocking chair wearing her mother's sequined funereal garment. With the aid of her pre-recorded voice, W recounts the different phases of a single memory in a bid to connect with "another creature like herself" before rocking herself into an eternal sleep.
This play takes place during Yom Kippur in a post-Stalinist Russian synagogue, where a Rabbi waits for a Western acting troupe and gets extremely angry about the repression of Jews in the Soviet Union.
In 1971, Alan Schneider directed an historic video taped performance of Samuel Beckett's Krapps Last Tape, starring Jack MacGowran. The play dramatized an old man’s struggle to repossess his youth by searching through reels of audiotape. This performance was originally intended for television but never shown and subsequently put away and forgotten for nearly twenty years. The videotape has been restored and will remain a memorial to the late Jack MacGowran, Alan Schneider and William Ritman.
Also Directed by Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett directs for German television for the last time.
The first broadcast of the radio play in English on the BBC on 6th October 1964. The play opens with a familiar Beckettian theme, the search to put an end to language: “—story . . . if you could finish it . . . you could rest . . . sleep . . . not before”. “The shape of the narrative itself is indicative of the mind already in the process of degenerating towards an impasse. Voice alternates between talking about the story-telling itself, or the need to find the story to end all stories, and narrating [what it hopes will be that final] story." (Wiki) The term ‘cascando’ (‘cascades’) involves the decrease of volume and the deceleration of tempo.
Samuel Beckett directs a second production of Eh Joe for German television, after the first one of 1966.
Samuel Beckett directs for German television.
A lone man sits at a table dreaming. He dreams of singing a few bars of Schubert's lied, "Nacht und Träume." Then unseen people give him a communion cup and wipe his brow. He is shown dreaming again, then the dream repeats, only much slower.
An adaptation of the Beckett play
Performed at the Royal Court Theatre on 16th January, 1973 Produced for the BBC in 1977 by Tristram Powell Directed by Anthony Page and Samuel Beckett Cast: Billie Whitelaw
Samuel Beckett himself directs his piece for German television. Shot on video in one take. Not to be confused with the English version, directed by Alan Gibson for the BBC.
Cloaked, cowled figures wander in patterns to rhythm instruments.
Samuel Beckett directs for German television.