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''What Where'' is Samuel Beckett's last
play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...
produced following a request for a new work for the 1983 Autumn Festival in Graz, Austria. It was written between February and March 1983 initially in French as ''Quoi où'' and translated by Beckett himself.


Synopsis

The play begins with a voice issuing forth from a dimly lit
megaphone A megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loudhailer is usually a portable or hand-held, cone-shaped acoustic horn used to amplify a person's voice or other sounds and direct it in a given direction. The sound is introduced int ...
: "We are the last five."Beckett, S., ''Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), p 310 Only four characters appear throughout the performance however, ''Bam'', ''Bom'', ''Bim'', and ''Bem'' (an echo of Rimbaud's sonnet, "
Voyelles "Voyelles" or "Vowels" is a sonnet in alexandrines by Arthur Rimbaud, written in 1871 but first published in 1883. Its theme is the different characters of the vowels, which it associates with those of colours. It has become one of the most st ...
") but the voice does not belong to a putative ''Bum'', rather it is the "Voice of Bam".Beckett, S., ''Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), p 309 The men are all dressed in identical grey gowns with the same long grey hair. Before the drama proper commences there is a quick run through of the action without words. The four characters enter and exit, as they will all do later, in a style more reminiscent of '' Quad'' than the two '' Act Without Words''
mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...
s. Satisfied with this the Voice of Bam says, "Good," switches off the light and prepares us for the action. The play follows a seasonal pattern. The voice tells us that it is spring and turns on the light. Bom enters from the north and is questioned by Bam as to the results of an interrogation. We do not learn who has been subjected to his ministrations – the assumption is Bum – only that he was given "the works", that he "wept", "screamed" and although he " gged for mercy" he still refused to "say ''it''".Beckett, S., ''Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), p 312 The voice is dissatisfied with how this scene is playing out and makes them start again. This time Bam wants to know if Bom attempted to revive the man. Bom claims that he couldn't at which point Bam accuses him of lying saying that he had been given the information and he would also be subjected to the same grilling until he confessed. Bim appears and asks what information he needs to extract from Bom. Bam maintains he only wants to know: "That he said ''it'' to him." Bim wants to make sure that is all he needs to obtain and then he can stop. Bam tells him, "Yes." Bam's voice repeats "not good, I start again". Bim then asks what is he to confess. Bam tells him that he needs to confess that he said "it" to him. Bim asks if that is all and Bam says "and what". Bim asks again and Bam says yes. Bim then calls Bom to come with him and they both exit. The same scene is now replayed only it is summer. The Voice of Bam tells us that time has passed but no effort is made to visually convey this fact; it is simply stated. Bim reappears and is questioned. Bam wants to know if he said "it" but the voice is again unhappy and makes them start again. This time Bim is asked if he managed to find out "where" from Bom which he had not as he had not been asked to. In the end Bem appears and is told to find out "where" from Bim. Bem and Bim both exit like before. We are again informed that time has passed. It is now autumn and Bem returns to report he has been unable to extract "where" from Bim. The voice no longer needs to hear the complete interchange and jumps to Bam accusing Bim of lying and threatening him with "the works". Since there is no one left to carry out his orders Bam escorts Bem away himself. The voice tells us that winter has now arrived. Bam appears from the west and waits with his head bowed. There is no one left to ask if he got the information or to accuse him of lying if he has proven as unsuccessful as the others. The voice tells us that he is alone now, " the present as were I still." There are no more journeys to make and nothing to do apart from let time pass. He leaves the audience to try to make sense of things on their own and switches the light off.


Sources of Inspiration


Bim and Bom

Just as Beckett has a fondness for characters whose names begin with M, there are also a host of characters whose names end with an M. From the time of his collection of stories ''
More Pricks Than Kicks ''More Pricks Than Kicks'' is a collection of short prose by Samuel Beckett, first published in 1934. It contains extracts from his earlier novel, ''Dream of Fair to Middling Women'' (for which he was unable to find a publisher), as well as oth ...
'' Bim and Bom appear periodically in Beckett's work. These were Russian clowns of the 1920s and '30s, who for a while were granted permission by the
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
authorities to satirize the shortcomings of the
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
. There is a Wikipedia article on Bim Bom which treats the Russian clowns as if they were an individual. as does the issue dated 30 April 1956. ''The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett'' has an entry for "Bim and Bom" (p 56) which also refers to them in the
plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
. James Knowlson in his biography of Beckett, ''Damned to Fame'', suggests that the names may echo
Richard Aldington Richard Aldington (8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962), born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet, and an early associate of the Imagist movement. He was married to the poet Hilda Doolittle (H. D.) from 1911 to 1938. His 50-year w ...
's ''Enter Bim and Bom'', the
epilogue An epilogue or epilog (from Greek ἐπίλογος ''epílogos'', "conclusion" from ἐπί ''epi'', "in addition" and λόγος ''logos'', "word") is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the w ...
to his 1931 novel ''The Colonel's Daughter'', on an English football field to comment upon the degeneration of English
society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...
and "became for Beckett
emblem An emblem is an abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a king or saint. Emblems vs. symbols Although the words ''emblem'' and '' symbol'' are often us ...
s of human cruelty, disguised under a comic garb." They first appear in the short story ''Yellow'', then in '' Murphy'' (along with Bum), in draft passages deleted from '' Waiting for Godot'' and ''
Endgame Endgame, Endgames, End Game, End Games, or similar variations may refer to: Film * ''The End of the Game'' (1919 film) * ''The End of the Game'' (1975 film), short documentary U.S. film * ''Endgame'' (1983 film), 1983 Italian post-apocalyptic f ...
'', Bom and Bem pop up in '' How It Is'' before finally bowing out in ''What Where''.


Schubert

"Beckett adored
Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wo ...
's
song cycle A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice ...
, ''
Winterreise ''Winterreise'' (, ''Winter Journey'') is a song cycle for voice and piano by Franz Schubert ( D. 911, published as Op. 89 in 1828), a setting of 24 poems by German poet Wilhelm Müller. It is the second of Schubert's two song cycles on Müller' ...
'' (Winter Journey) … nd used to listen spellbound to
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, ...
's stunning recording of the songs … He also knew about his connections with the town of Graz chubert had stayed there for a time… In the Schubert '' Lieder'', the traveller in the opening
poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
, ''Gute Nacht'' (Good Night) has lost his love and journeys disconsolately from May into snowy winter …
his His or HIS may refer to: Computing * Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company * Honeywell Information Systems * Hybrid intelligent system * Microsoft Host Integration Server Education * Hangzhou International School, in ...
provided Beckett with the formal structure of his play, moving from spring to winter … suggesting death."Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p 685


Thomas Moore

In his notes for the German TV production, Beckett wrote "'For PA .e. playing areathe light of other days'. And he admitted that he expressly associated this play with
Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...
's poignant poem, ''Oft, in the Stilly Night'', which includes the lines 'Sad memory brings the light / Of other days around me'."


James Joyce

Earlier in his career, Beckett—a disciple of Joyce in his younger days—had previously contributed the essay, "Dante...Bruno.Vico..Joyce" in the critical anthology, ''
Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress ''Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress'' is a 1929 collection of critical essays, and two letters, on the subject of James Joyce's book ''Finnegans Wake'', then being published in discrete sections under t ...
'', a work meant to prepare the reading public for what would be the final phase in Joyce's writing. It is possible that Beckett may have been inspired to name his characters from the sixth verse of the so-called "Ballad of Humpty Dumpty" in ''
Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...
'': So snug he was in his hotel premises sumptuous But soon we'll bonfire all his trash, tricks and trumpery And'tis short till sheriff Clancy'll be winding up his unlimited company With the bailiff's bom at the door, (Chorus) Bimbam at the door. Then he'll bum no more. Notice that, just as "Bum" is the only unspoken name in Beckett's "last five," so too is "Bem" the only vowel variant missing from Joyce's wordplay. More importantly, however, is the context that Joyce's combination of "bom," "Bimbam," and "bum" suggest. The percussive "bailiff's bom at the door," immediately followed by "Bimbam at the door," all suggest physical intimidation by agents of the state—something which could only have informed Beckett's choice in naming his characters, even if Joyce's work was not his only source of inspiration.


Interpretation

As with many of Beckett's later works for the stage and television, one definitive interpretation of ''What Where'' has proven elusive. A clear
totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...
edge exists which is why many opt for a
political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
reading but, as with ''
Catastrophe Catastrophe or catastrophic comes from the Greek κατά (''kata'') = down; στροφή (''strophē'') = turning ( el, καταστροφή). It may refer to: A general or specific event * Disaster, a devastating event * The Asia Minor Catastro ...
'' before it, there is more going on here. It can also be interpreted as a
portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...
of a single consciousness engaged in a self-reflective act. When the Voice of Bam wants the action to restart, rather than instruct the two player to "Start again," it says – significantly – "''I'' start again" suggesting that the words and actions of the two men are being directly controlled, remembered or imagined by the consciousness behind the voice, presumably the Bam as he is in the present. A political reading cannot be simply dismissed though since Beckett himself "briefly entertained making each character wear a tarboosh, fezlike headgear associated with
Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...
ns."Ackerley, C. J. and Gontarski, S. E., (Eds.) ''The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett'', (London: Faber and Faber, 2006), p 642 Even today " rture and ill-treatment in
police custody An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be questi ...
remain widespread in Armenia. Torture usually occurs in pre-
trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal ...
detention with the aim of coercing a confession or evidence against third parties." Beckett is famously reported as saying of ''What Where'': "I don't know what it means. Don't ask me what it means. It's an object." There is clearly a danger in taking this remark at face value. Beckett undoubtedly had something quite specific in mind as can be seen in the way he moulded his vision over the three productions in America, Germany and France detailed below. One significant remark he did make was that the Voice of Bam could be thought as coming from "beyond the grave". Beckett, in ''
Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous E ...
'', calls memory "some miracle of analogy;" he qualifies it in the preceding phrase as "an accident". The inability to remember, to get at the truth, is a focal point in much of his work. Beckett's characters (e.g. May in ''
Footfalls ''Footfalls'' is a play by Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work ...
'', Mouth in ''
Not I ''Not I'' is a short dramatic monologue written in 1972 (20 March to 1 April) by Samuel Beckett which was premiered at the "Samuel Beckett Festival" by the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, New York (22 November 1972). Synopsis ''Not I'' tak ...
'') seem doomed to repeat themselves, as much as the accidents or miracles of analogy allow them some momentary insight into their situations. For Beckett, memory is second-hand knowledge. You were not there. Another "you" was. Can you trust what he says he saw and heard? This would not be the first time Beckett has fragmented an individual for dramatic effect (e.g. ''
That Time ''For the song "That Time" by Regina Spektor see Begin to Hope'' ''That Time'' is a one-act play by Samuel Beckett, written in English between 8 June 1974 and August 1975. The play was specially written for actor Patrick Magee, who delivered it ...
'' or '' Ohio Impromptu''). Beckett believes people to be in a continual state of flux, often finding it hard to relate to earlier versions of their own selves (e.g. Krapp: Just been listening to that stupid bastard I took myself for thirty years ago, hard to believe I was ever as bad as that.). With each passing day "we are other", Beckett notes in his monograph, "no longer what we were before the calamity of yesterday." Bam is not wallowing in nostalgia though (like the women in ''
Come and Go ''Come and Go'' is a short play (described as a "dramaticule" on its title page) by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in January 1965 and first performed (in German) at the Schillertheater, Berlin on 14 January 1966. Its English language ...
''), rather he is trying to remember something – an "it", a "when", a "where" – that insists on remaining just out of reach. Those "familiar with his preoccupation, themes, images,
figures of speech A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from ordinary language use in order to produce a rhetorical effect. Figures of speech are traditionally classified into '' schemes,'' which vary the ordinary ...
… may assume that the 'what where' question is a kind of Oedipus' riddle and that the answer to it cannot be found, despite an obligation to ask the question." Rather than simply "What?" and "Where?" the full questions could easily be: "What is the meaning of life?" and "Where does it all come from?" If Bam is trying to ascertain the details surrounding a particular crime, the question has to be asked: what crime? James Knowlson believes "that crime appears likely to be Calderón’soriginal sin of being born', which Beckett had evoked at the beginning of his career in this essay ''Proust''. Consequently, the overall perpetrator is unlikely ever to be known, let alone apprehended."Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p 687


Production history

Beckett was not happy with the piece when first completed. He wrote to
Kay Boyle Kay Boyle (February 19, 1902 – December 27, 1992) was an American novelist, short story writer, educator, and political activist. She was a Guggenheim Fellow and O. Henry Award winner. Early years The granddaughter of a publisher, Boyle was ...
in March 1983: "Just finished a short piece – theatre – for the Graz autumn festival, to my dissatisfaction." As had become his working practice, he refined it in rehearsals over several years until he was better pleased with the result. For example, many of the changes television made possible were then adopted back into the stage version.


1983

"The first production of the play at the
Harold Clurman Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS.
Theatre, New York on 15 June 1983 directed by
Alan Schneider Alan Schneider (December 12, 1917 – May 3, 1984) was an American theatre director responsible for more than 100 theatre productions. In 1984 he was honored with a Drama Desk Special Award for serving a wide range of playwrights. He directed th ...
, was (naturally) totally faithful to Beckett’s text. The play seemed surprisingly long and showed real 'longueurs' not only in the production but also in the text." " tarrived at the last minute when the first two plays were already in rehearsal avingbeen hastily translated by the author to finish off Alan Schneider's evening."Calder, J.
Review: Three Beckett Plays at the Harold Clurman Theatre, New York, 1983
'' Journal of Beckett Studies'', Nos 11 and 12, December 1989
"Reviewers … tended to concentrate almost exclusively on the play’s possible political resonance. Alan Schneider, commenting on this, wrote to Beckett: ‘''What Where'' most people keep wanting to interpret on the literal political level – I think it may suffer from coming after ''Catastrophe''.’"


1985

In December 1983 Beckett planned to go to Stuttgart to direct the German version ''Was Wo''. Due to ill health the project ended up being postponed. The filming finally took place at the studios of Süddeutscher Rundfunk between 18 and 25 June 1985. "This was to be his last trip abroad." The work was transmitted on 13 June 1986. "The production was a dramatic distillation and transformation of the original, effectively a recreation." Eric Brater contends that "On screen Beckett more clearly establishes that this is a story about Bam remembering … Torture becomes more explicitly self-inflicted, a function of memory, remorse and the relentless need to tell a story." "Instead of players in long gray gowns, their own corporeality suspect, the four figures of the revised, television ''What Where'' now appeared as floating faces dissolving in and out f the light… Neither representation of Bam then is corporeal, Beckett representing instead a spectre and its mirror reflection, and the rest of the figures of ''What Where'' are ghosts as well, all the more so as they are represented by the patterns of dots on the television screen. What characters, what bodies, finally exist in ''What Where'' are created by voice, less absent presences than present absences." Beckett referred to the lit playing area in this production as the "field of memory". "The clear indication is that what we are seeing is both a memory and a
scenario In the performing arts, a scenario (, ; ; ) is a synoptical collage of an event or series of actions and events. In the ''commedia dell'arte'', it was an outline of entrances, exits, and action describing the plot of a play, and was literally pi ...
: instructions come from the megaphone, the Voice of Bam controls what we see, puts the characters through their movements rapidly without words like a film running over its spools at rewind speed, and then starts again, occasionally stopping when Bam is not satisfied and a phrase is improved to add to the force of the theme. Krapp’s_Last_Tape''_but_it_also.html" ;"title="Krapp's_Last_Tape.html" ;"title="he play can therefore be compared with ''Krapp's Last Tape">Krapp’s Last Tape'' but it also">Krapp's_Last_Tape.html" ;"title="he play can therefore be compared with ''Krapp's Last Tape">Krapp’s Last Tape'' but it alsoshares many similarities with ''Ohio Impromptu'', the identical characters in appearance and dress, the unwinding backwards of events and the stylization of image and movement in particular." With Krapp his memories have a certain degree of reliability. Not so with Bam. " e figures in ''What Where'' emerge from beyond the grave, ghosts of memories that never really were." They are given form ''as if they existed''. "In this version the difference between the two Bams was achieved mechanically."Gontarski, S. E., 'The Body in the Body of Beckett’s Theater' in Moorjani, A. and Veit, C., (Eds.) ''Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui, Samuel Beckett: Endlessness in the Year 2000'' (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001), p 175 "There was a slightly higher
frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...
in he voiceof the younger Bam, and a lower deeper effect in the older Bam." "'In his Stuggart notebook Beckett wrote that "S (''Stimme'' oice = mirror reflection of Bam’s face … S’s voice prerecorded. Bam’s but changed.' This enlarged and distorted
death mask A death mask is a likeness (typically in wax or plaster cast) of a person's face after their death, usually made by taking a cast or impression from the corpse. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits. It ...
... replaced the suspended 'megaphone at head level' of the original publication." The altered voices of Bam creates, as Walter Asmus suggests, "the ghost Bam, dead Bam, distorted image of a face in a grave, somewhere not in this world any longer, imagining that he comes back to life in the world, dreaming and seeing himself as a … face on the screen." "Jim Lewis, the
cameraman A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not imply that a male is performing the task. In filmmakin ...
with whom Beckett worked on the German TV production ... suggested that at least with regard to 'V' – 'Voice of Bam' it is a matter of being beyond death as this represents, 'The image of Bam in the beyond or beyond the grave or whatever you want to call it'". The stage Bam is therefore an "historical projection" of the
incorporeal Incorporeality is "the state or quality of being incorporeal or bodiless; immateriality; incorporealism." Incorporeal (Greek: ἀσώματος) means "Not composed of matter; having no material existence." Incorporeality is a quality of souls, s ...
voice emanating from the loudspeaker. "The original play had a substantial emphasis on eliciting 'where' from the victims, even where the victim said 'where'. Beckett ... eliminated that potentially confusing repetition, substituting a balanced 'He didn’t say what?’ 'He didn't say where?’ into each encounter. The emphasis on 'where' was decreased, many changed to 'it' and each 'where' followed by a 'what'."


1986

"The
erman Erman Rašiti may refer to: Given name * Erman Bulucu (born 1989), Turkish footballer * Erman Eltemur (born 1993), Turkish karateka * Erman Güraçar (born 1974), Turkish footballer * Erman Kılıç (born 1983), Turkish footballer * Erman Kunter (b ...
television play showed three characters who simply appear and disappear instead of shuffling back and forth on stage, which took a long time. Considering the original printed text not successful, following the clearly superior television piece, Beckett sought with he director PierreChabert to find a stage equivalent. While Beckett was convinced it could not be done, Chabert proposed to accomplish the appearance/disappearance of the characters with lighting. Beckett agreed to go along with it." The six performances took place at the
Théâtre du Rond-Point The Théâtre du Rond-Point is a theatre in Paris, located at 2bis avenue Franklin-D.-Roosevelt, 8th arrondissement. History The theatre began with an 1838 project of architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff for a rotunda in the Champs Elysees. Inau ...
in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
and featured
David Warrilow David Warrilow (28 December 1934 – 17 August 1995) was an English actor best known as one of the "finest interpreters of Samuel Beckett’s work".Cited in Ackerley, C.J., and Gontarski, Stan, ''The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett'', New Yor ...
as Bam. The revised text (known as ''What Where II'') did away with the opening mime, Bam's interventions and the characters were again represented only as floating heads. "''Je recommence''" (I start again) was amended to "''Ici Bam''" (Here is Bam). "Because of technical difficulties, the French stage production replaced the enlarged and distorted reflection of Bam’s face with a
halo Halo, halos or haloes usually refer to: * Halo (optical phenomenon) * Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head HALO, halo, halos or haloes may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Video games * ''Halo'' (franch ...
, a ring of diffuse orange light. Chabert’s production note is as follows: ‘''rond lumineux'' = ''source de Voix'',’" Additionally, " place of the
cowl A cowl is an item of clothing consisting of a long, hooded garment with wide sleeves, often worn by monks. Originally it may have referred simply to the hooded portion of a cloak. In contemporary usage, however, it is distinguished from a clo ...
-covered heads that created the impression of floating faces, Beckett substituted shaved skulls. The field of memory was now implicit ... On the stage the players appeared unrealistically high standing on a concealed two-foot platform, their heads aligned with the pulsing light that echoed the TV tube."


1988

In 1987 Beckett worked with Stan Gontarski and John Reilly to refine the production, filmed at the Magic Theater in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, for American television. It has been released by Global Village Video as
Peephole Art: Beckett for Television
'. The four characters are portrayed by Morgan Upton, Tom Luce, Dave Peichart and Richard Wagner. Beckett had been not quite satisfied with the French stage production and re-introduced the "cowl-covered heads replacing the skulls nd also asked thatthe light somehow
ake Ake (or Aké in Spanish orthography) is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It's located in the municipality of Tixkokob, in the Mexican state of Yucatán; 40 km (25 mi) east of Mérida, Yucatán. The name ...
on the image of Bam (but not, he emphasised, televised)." The opening mime was also reinstated. As with the German television production the Voice of Bam was now represented as an eerily distorted face, hovering in the upper left corner of a dark screen. The Modern Word website describes it "like a living, concave mask. His voice is sepulchral and chilling, yet conveys a sad, lonely quality as well. Bam, Bom, Bim, and Bem appear as detached faces along the bottom of the screen, floating in the black void and illuminated in stark white contrast. The dialogue is delivered in brisk, metallic monotones, emphasizing the sameness of the characters and the repetitiveness of the seasonal interrogations."


1999

Damien O’Donnell directed a filmed version of ''What Where'' for the ''
Beckett on Film ''Beckett on Film'' was a project aimed at making film versions of all nineteen of Samuel Beckett's stage plays, with the exception of the early and unperformed ''Eleutheria''. This endeavour was successfully completed, with the first films bei ...
'' project in December 1999. It was filmed at
Ardmore Studios Ardmore Studios, in Bray, County Wicklow, is Irelands's only four wall studio. It opened in 1958 under the management of Emmet Dalton and Louis Elliman. Since then, it has evolved through many managements and owners. It has been the base for ...
in County Wicklow, Ireland. Bam is played and voiced by Sean McGinley. Gary Lewis plays all other characters and the original text and stage instructions are used including the opening mime. O'Donnell sets the play within a claustrophobic, high-tech library, its tall shelves bordered by strips of
fluorescent Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, ...
lighting. When the Voice of Bam declares, "I switch on," the luminescent tubes stutter awake to the sound of breakers being thrown. The voice itself is dispassionate and calm; issuing from a megaphone-shaped
loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or ...
fixed above the central doors, it evokes
HAL 9000 HAL 9000 is a fictional artificial intelligence character and the main antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's ''Space Odyssey'' series. First appearing in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', HAL ( Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) ...
from the film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. The metal clanging of doors and the crisp footsteps on the metallic floor accentuate the chilly atmosphere. O'Donnell said in interview: " ere is no set in the original play, but I argued that the whole play is about
power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...
and the abuse of power, and how information is power, so we used the library as a
metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
for somebody who has control of all the power and all the information. When it came to casting, I was looking for a particular type of actor – somebody who could bring a sort of menacing quality to the screen. There is a lot of menace in the play. ''What Where'' is about a brooding, palpable evil, which is a theme that occurs in Beckett's other work." Presented thus is it easy to see ''What Where'' as Beckett's ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...
''. At the end of ''Catastrophe'' there is a flicker of hope. Not so here. Just as Winston Smith is beaten into submission so are these characters. O’Donnell brings "the scene closer to
realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...
and create a dark, sinister atmosphere by homing in on the faces of the two actors … As he said, 'Filming allows you to show a close-up of a terrified man, bringing a different edge to the work.'" Before switching off for the last time Bam's voice instructs the audience: "Make sense who may"Beckett, S., ''Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), p 316 but how do you make sense out of something senseless? And is any
adjective In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ma ...
used more often to describe violence? Beckett has left it up to the viewer to supply his own meaning.


Adaptations

The play has been adapted as a one-act chamber opera by
Heinz Holliger Heinz Robert Holliger (born 21 May 1939) is a Swiss virtuoso oboist, composer and conductor. Celebrated for his versatility and technique, Holliger is among the most prominent oboists of his generation. His repertoire includes Baroque and Classic ...
, composed in 1988 and first released on a commercial recording in 1997.


References


External links


''Voyelles'' (''Vowels'') by Arthur Rimbaud''Gute Nacht'' (''Good Night'') by Wilhelm MüllerMagic Theatre website
{{Beckett 1983 plays Theatre of the Absurd Plays by Samuel Beckett