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Breath Play

Breath is considered another of Beckett’s dramaticules, even shorter like Come and Go notably short stage work by Samuel Beckett. Webster defines a dramaticule as a little or insignificant drama. The play is considered to be a dramaticule because of its short length. Its length can be estimated from Beckett’s detailed instructions in the script to be about 35 seconds.

The first performance of the text as written was the UK premiere was at the Close Theatre Club in Glasgow in October 1969. The second performance was held at the Oxford Playhouse on March 8, 1970.  An altered version was first included in Kenneth Tynan’s revue Oh! Calcutta!, at the Eden Theatre in New York City on 16 June 1969.

Structure and Stage Directions of Breath Play

Being a dramaticule, it consists of very little stage directions and setting. The stage is strewn with garbage as per the directions and opens with the cry of a baby-“an instant of recorded vagitus”.

It is followed by an amplified recording of slow inhalation and exhalation. The directions then include an increase and decrease in the intensity of the lighting. Pauses follow these eerie instructions and there a second identical cry is heard, and quite abruptly the dramaticule ends. Beckett states that it should be “littered with miscellaneous rubbish.”

He specifies that there are to be “no verticals”, the rubbish was to be “all scattered and lying.” Here are the stage directions as mentioned in the play:

Curtain.
1. Faint light on a 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 for about five seconds.
3. Expiration and slow decrease of light together reaching minimum together (light as in 1.) in about ten seconds and immediately cry as before. Silence and hold for about five seconds.

Breath Play Plot

It is important to note that Beckett’s plays like Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and Come and Go all are characterized by a plotless plot, that is no concrete plot is present in any of his plays in keeping with the Theatre of the Absurd. Similarly, Breath entails no plot, just eerie of stage directions that include sound effects and stage lighting.

The rejection of the plot is a conscious attempt on Beckett’s part to bring out the meaninglessness of life and the loop of suffering that comes with it. He therefore, in Breath replaces the cluttered stage of naturalism in drama with the empty stage that in the words of Peter Hall was “an image of life passing in hope, despair; companionship and loneliness.” Noticeably, the play does not employ a single character or word imparting uniqueness to its approach and form.

Characters

One of the eeriest things about the play is its stark absence of characters and dialogue.

Breath Play Themes

With so little in terms of plot and character, viewers find the play very disturbing. The initial pause and the first cry have been associated with birth, and constitute the introductory moment of life in general as well as in this play in particular. The inhalation may be a symbol of the consequent processes revolving around growth and development, and is clearly a “rising action”.

The pause, while the breath is held, is equivalent to the climax of the play and the culmination of growth and maturation. The exhalation becomes a  metaphor for the decline of the body, its health and all the vitalities of life with advancing age and the final cry resembles humans in pain – the consequent death.

This constitutes the “falling action”. Many critics have called the final cry a cry of rebirth and not a “death rattle”.

Conclusion

To deduce the final message of the play, it is important that we take into account the philosophies of Beckett and what he has always ventured to establish through his works. The meaninglessness of existence and the perpetual suffering that humans are destined to be the crux of his work.

Even in Breath, we are made aware of his critical commentary on the human condition. The Biblical saying ”Dust thou art to dust thou returnest” is what audiences are made conscious of while viewing the play. He makes it clear that we are born into a heap of rubbish, making a mark with our cry at our entrance, our entire existence can then be summarised as passing away in the blink of an eye, that is in a couple of breaths, and then there is the cry of our death.

FAQs

Whose play called Breath lasts just thirty-five seconds and consists of no words?

Breath is a short dramaticule by Samuel Beckett, lasting only thirty-five seconds.

What is the shortest play ever?

Breath is said to be the shortest play ever with no characters at all.

Is Breath a play?

Breath is a short dramaticule by Samuel Beckett.

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