The Gate Theatre Analysis

During Dublin’s role as the European Capital of Culture in 1991, The Gate Theatre, alongside Trinity College and RTÈ, hosted a Samuel Beckett festival. The festival took place over a three-week period and all nineteen of Beckett’s plays were produced. The Samuel Beckett festival was the brainchild of Michael Colgan, artistic director of the Gate Theatre, who stated, “Beckett is the Shakespeare of the twentieth century.” (Saunders, 81) Due to the immense success of the festival the plays began to tour worldwide, giving Colgan the inspiration for Beckett on Film. The project was produced by Colgan and Alan Moloney’s production company Blue Angel Productions, RTÈ, Channel 4, Bord Scannàn na hEireann and Tyrone Productions. The idea behind the

RTÈ acted as the main financial backers of the project, alongside outside investors, giving the project £4.5 million to produce the series. In comparison to Hollywood films, this budget is miniscule, however, these were short films and would cost less to produce. In 1977, the BBC released their production of Not I as part of “The Lively Arts: Shades, Three Plays by Samuel Beckett” series, directed by Donald McWhinnie. Quickly realising that Mouth would not be as effective filmed from a stage Beckett and McWhinnie flipped the original stage concept by using one long close-up on the mouth for the entirety of the production. Much like McWhinnie, Neil Jordan too chose to use close ups of the mouth. However, Jordan uses several extreme close up shots of the mouth to portray an eerie, unpredictable atmosphere. Six differently angled shots were edited to seem like a “single, seamless take.” (Irish Times) Realising each take could stand alone, Jordan developed the original film into a six-screen film-based installation. This installation portrayed the same unnerving and uncomfortable atmosphere the original stage production contained. In both the original staging and McWhinnie’s film, the armature is not seen by the audience, Mouth is instead the focus. In contrast to the original production, Jordan chose to include the armature as a prop in the film thus “destroying entirely the indispensable

During the process of adapting Not I; the auditor was removed, the armature became a prop and the woman behind the mouth was introduced to the audience. While the adaption was highly praised by critics who were unfamiliar with Beckett’s work, those who were familiar did not feel it lived up to the play or the BBC filmed version. The Irish Times referred to the Beckett on Film adaption as “technically brilliant” but also states “it also falls far short of the chilling, deeply disturbing effect of the piece in the theatre.” Due to the casting of Hollywood actress, Julianne Moore, the character of Mouth became “a glamorous and perfect mouth,” (Borges, 6) opposing Beckett’s original intentions for the character. Instead of an eerie atmosphere, the film becomes bright and familiar due to Jordan’s choice of lighting. While in both the BBC filmed adaption and the original stage production, the screen and stage only consist of the Mouth’s lips, tongue and teeth, in Beckett on Film’s adaption the audience are aware there is a body behind the mouth due to the opening scene as well as the view of Mouth’s cheeks, top chin and upper lip area. By familiarising Mouth, the film loses the original uncomfortableness the stage production had. However, a goal of the production was to introduce Beckett to a new, wider