Samuel Beckett's 'Breath'

 

Interpretation challenge

 Beckett's

'Breath'

This blog is a task given by Dr. Dilip Barad sir H.O.D. of English Department M.K.B.U. in this task we have to create a video of the play 'Breath' by Samuel Beckett and try to give our own interpretation. Here I embedded a link of this task -

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'Breath'

By Samuel Beckett

'Breath' is one of the shortest plays by Samuel Buckett. He was a prominent writer of the 20th century. He wrote a thirteen second play which does not include  any actors, text, character and drama but only stage direction. This play includes the sound of “an instant of recorded vagitus” (a birth-cry), followed by an amplified recording of somebody slowly inhaling and exhaling accompanied by an increase and decrease in the intensity of the light.

Script of the play

Curtain.

1. Faint light on stage littered with miscellaneous rubbish.  Hold for about five seconds.

2.  Faint brief cry and immediately inspiration and slow increase of light together reaching maximum together in about ten seconds.  Silence and hold about five seconds.

3.  Expiration and slow decrease of light together reaching minimum together (light as in I) in about ten seconds and immediately cry as before.  Silence and hold for about five seconds.

Beckett adds some notes:

Rubbish.  No verticals, all scattered and lying.

Cry.  Instant of recorded vagitus.  Important that two cries be identical, switching on and off strictly synchronized light and breath.

Breath.  Amplified recording.

Maximum light.  Not bright.  If 0 = dark and 10 = bright, light should move from about 3 to 6 and back.

My Interpretation

This play contains the main three things which are cry, breath and light. Cry represents and is connected with birth, breath represents life, and lite represents death. So life is between cry, breath and light. Everyone's life struggles between those three things.

In my video i use many art supplies like acrylic pants, oil paints, watercolors, brushes, poster colors, sketch book, pencils, leaf, spoon, empty boxes, linseed oil, acrylic medium, soft pastel, cutter, lock and key, marker, glass marker, eraser sharpener and inkpad, color palate, white paper, color pencils, micro pen, fixing spray, oil pastel, white gel pen, marker and many more things. Those things represent a breath for an artist. Without those things none of the artists couldn't imagine their artwork, they live with their art, and also try to represent their life and their emotion through their work. 

My video starts with a green colored bottle which represents nature, and nature represents life, also there were leaves which also represent life. In this video I use crowd screaming and horror sound. Just after that we can see a sketchbook , then many bottles, then an acrylic painting of lotus flower which represent beauty and purity, rebirth and strength. Strength is important in human life, and after that we can see empty boxes which seem meaningless and purposeless, so every person who likes art  they once felt that their art is meaningless, and also they face many meaningless questions from society. At the end I use a screaming sound and a red sign of death, which represent the end of life.

So my video starts with green paint which represents life and ends with a red sign of death, which represents the end of death.

Word - 554 

Video - 1