Film adaptations of two Samuel Beckett plays Not I and Krapp’s Last Tape, were screened in New York City on September as part of the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center. The films are a part of the ambitious project to film all of Beckett’s 19 plays and is being produced by Michael Colgan of the Gate Theater and Alan Moloney. Eight of the plays have been filmed so far and the project has attracted an impressive body of talent from Ireland and beyond.
Directed by Neil Jordan, the film Not I, a fifteen-minute monologue stars Julianne Moore who starred in Jordan’s film The End of the Affair. Krapp’s Last Tape was directed by Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) and starred famous English actor John Hurt. Other actors lined up for the Beckett project are Kristin Scott Thomas, Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons.
Criticism from Beckett purists is to be expected, but Colgan asserts, “It sounds arrogant, but having known Beckett and having produced all of these plays at least once on stage, I think it would be better for me to do this than anyone else.” ♦
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