Come and Go
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Come and Go is a short play (described as a dramaticule) by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1965 and first performed (in German) in January 1966. Some critics consider this one of his most "perfect" plays: Beckett agonized over each individual line until they exactly matched his creative vision. The play is only a few hundred words in length (his notes were apparently significantly longer than the actual play) and as such is rarely performed on its own.
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[edit] Synopsis
The play consists of three figures, Flo, Vi, and Ru, sitting quietly. Throughout the play each figure comes and goes off stage, with one of the remaining two whispering a shocking secret to one other. We do not hear these secrets. At the play's conclusion, the three link hands and Flo says, "I can feel the rings", though none are actually apparent.
[edit] Stage directions
In a fashion typical of Beckett, the stage directions are exactingly detailed and precise. Due to the complexity of the movements throughout the piece, Beckett included a diagram of each of the characters' position during the performance. A diagram of the aforementioned rings, and the way they should be formed from the actors' hands, is also included.
[edit] Interpretations
Some speculate as to what the characters are discussing. The reference to rings may be to lost love, love to come, or the "ring of friendship" that has kept them together throughout their personal tragedies.
The play might also be seen as a coming of age situation. Vi yearns for the "old days", presumably when there were no awful secrets to tell but, at the same time, to which all three characters know there is no return.
The play's structure is circular ("ring" like). It is divided into three exactly equal segments of seven lines during which a character exits and comes back in, taking a different seat to the one they sat on originally. In this sense the characters also move around their seats in a ring shape.
[edit] External links
| The Plays of Samuel Beckett |
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| Act Without Words I, Act Without Words II, Breath, Catastrophe, Come and Go, Eleutheria (posthumous), Endgame, Film (screenplay), Footfalls, Happy Days, Krapp's Last Tape, Not I, Ohio Impromptu, A Piece of Monologue, Play, Rockaby, Rough for Theatre I, Rough for Theatre II, That Time, Waiting for Godot, What Where |
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