ABSTRACTS

Graley Herren (Xavier University)
Repeat Beckett: Adapting Play from Stage to Screen

    In 1966 Samuel Beckett collaborated on a film adaptation of his stage play Comédie (Play). After languishing underground for over thirty years, the film recently resurfaced. Amid controversy over the creative liberties taken in the Beckett on Film project, the reemergence of Beckett’s own screen adaptation of a stage play is both timely and instructive. While Beckett the Filmmaker is clearly respectful of Beckett the Playwright, the former also takes considerable artistic liberties in adapting the work of the latter from one medium to another. This paper will attempt to account for these creative revisions, in part by juxtaposing the 1966 Comédie film against Anthony Minghella’s 2001 adaptation of Play for Beckett on Film.