Samuel Beckett
«Night and Dreams»

The last-but-one of the TV plays made by Beckett for the broadcaster Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) in Stuttgart is a reduced black-and-white vision containing the following elements: evening light, dreamer (A), dreamed ego (B), dreamed hands R (right) and L (left). Again, Samuel Beckett is operating with minimalist variations and blurred grey tones. In the first shot, the camera is static. The dreamer hears from the wings the last notes of a ‘lied' – Schubert's identically titled ‘Night and Dreams' – and then rests his head in his hands. His dreamed image drinks, a hand pats his forehead, another hand holds his hand, his head sinks down onto the table, a hand is placed on his head. This sequence is repeated, with Becket varying the dream sequences as full-size images.

 

Rudolf Frieling