I watched around 30 minutes of the production, starting with page 775. The biggest contrast between the production and the text is the directing. For instance, the tone of voice that the actors choose to use or the director tells them to use. I did not notice how angry at each other Hamm and Clov are throughout the whole play. It becomes very distinct once the director shows the anger in their faces and the loud, bitter tones in their voices. This is shown in the scene where Hamm rants about Clov one day being alone on page 779. Hamm is almost yelling at the top of his lungs after Clov says, “I cant sit down,” but the text merely says Hamm is impatient. I also noticed how the director really emphasized the humor when Clov was pushing Hamm around trying to find the center of the room from page 776. This comical aspect stood out much more in the production than in the text because of the amount of bantering the characters do back in forth. Overall, the directing was very similar to the text, but I definitely think the director emphasized some emotions and parts more so than others.
Jacqueline Devine and Francesca Furca
April 25, 2017 Written by j.devine | 7 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
7 responses so far ↓
j.morreale // Apr 26th 2017 at 7:14 pm
i have almost the same exact opinion on this. While reading the text you are somewhat able to get an idea of the emotions and the actions that the characters are portraying. It was not until i watched the film in class that i was fully able to understand how the characters were reacting and what exactly was going on in the film. In most aspects of this story i think that the best way to understand it is to watch the film since by reading the book alone you might not understand everything and catch everything that is important in the storyline.
j.han6 // Apr 26th 2017 at 11:34 pm
I completely agree with this post. A tone of voice is not what we can take into account as we read the text. I think that this is very important factor to understand the storyline because the tone of voice expresses a variety of characters’ emotions according to the situation. Sadness, happiness, anger, loneliness and all the other emotions can be expressed by a tone of voice. Sometimes, even though the speaker speaks in opposition to their will, a tone of voice expresses the real intent of what the speaker says. So, I fully agree with what Jacqueline is talking about.
b.samura // Apr 27th 2017 at 4:29 pm
I agree with how the directing in the production and the book are similar , there is a lack of emotions presented in both pieces. Although its harder to decipher the actors feelings in the book rather than the play. Like you said you can see their emotions through their faces and thats what make its more clear. Had it not have been for that the book itself was confusing and hard to understand so the play has slight bit improvement. The directing in the play is more effective because we understand the situations more.
s.domosi // Apr 27th 2017 at 4:52 pm
I agree that the comical elements of the story did not translate as well when reading the text versus watching the actors play out the scenes. The back and forth of the characters made reading the script more choppy which made is hard for the comedic effect to translate well. While watching the play, the actors had to ability to play out the lines seamlessly one after another, which I believe is more in one with the way Beckett intended it to be presented. A stark contrast is created between the comedy of the play and the dark tonality as well as the Nihilistic elements of the play.
n.mazza1 // Apr 27th 2017 at 9:29 pm
I agree ! The directing definitely makes a big difference between the book and the film. I can also agree that most of the comical aspects of the story is greater emphasized in the film rather than the book. We notice more irony, sarcasm and whit in the play where as the book just allows us to read constant dialogue. Also, in the film, one of the first things the audience notices is that Clov never faces Hamm when he speaks to him. Whenever they are speaking Clov stands on the side of Hamm which shows us how intimidated he feels without actually saying it.
m.khan10 // Apr 27th 2017 at 11:58 pm
I definitely agree with this assessment of the film. It seemed like there was a lot more expression and emphasis on emotion in the film compared to the text. There was also a comedic aspect to some of the scenes in the film that didn’t really stand out in the text.
j.yatcha // Apr 28th 2017 at 12:32 am
To reply to what Jacqueline said I mentioned some of what you said in my own post and I definitely agree that something as simple as tone of voice can really change a production dramatically. For example, when I read the play Hamm and Clov’s relationship seemed more equal than it appeared in the play. In the play Hamm seems to tell Clov what to do but I didn’t imagine him being so authoritative about such things. Whereas, on the other hand, the play, through tone, depicts the relationship between Hamm and Clov to be almost as if Clov is Hamm’s servant.
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