An evening of three rarely-produced plays by Samuel Beckett, Beckett Briefs was presented by the Irish Repertory Theatre, opening on January 26, 2025 in New York City. Lighting designer Michael Gottlieb was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for this production. "A religious reading of Beckett’s stage directions inspired my lighting design," says Gottlieb.
"The first play, Not I, is a monologue by a woman, known as Mouth. Her mouth, elevated approximately eight feet above the stage, is the only object illuminated in the entire theatre. She describes, at age 70 and after a lifetime without speaking, the anxiety and uncertainty of her existence since childhood," explains Gottlieb.
"The second play, Play, features two women and a man in funereal urns, visible only from the neck up. The three characters were involved in a love triangle and continue, after death, to recount their complaints. Each character speaks only when a swinging spotlight points in their direction, as if the light is a fourth character—an interlocutor," Gottlieb notes.
The third play, Krapp’s Last Tape, takes place in the room of Krapp, an old man who reviews tape recordings of his younger self. His desk sits under a hanging lamp.
The production used a turntable to shift between the three sets.
"I illuminated Mouth in Not I with a single spotlight from the balcony rail, with the tightest framing possible. The rest of her face was behind a black shroud. We took extra measures to eliminate all sources of extraneous light in the theatre. One unanticipated effect, experienced by some audience members, was the perception that the mouth was floating and moving in space during the course of the performance," points out the LD.
For Play, an ETC Source Four LED Profile with a robotic mirror was used to illuminate each performer as they spoke. "I used two additional fixtures for the few times when all three characters spoke at once. The urns were illuminated by Source Four PARs bounced into a downstage retaining wall. This short piece had several hundred light cues," Gottlieb says.
"Motivated by the single hanging lamp at center, Krapp’s Last Tape had possibly the most conventional lighting of the three pieces. As Beckett specified, the sides of the room away from the hanging lamp were in shadow," notes the LD.
Recognized with the nomination for a Lucille Lortel Award for his lighting, Gottlieb concludes: "It was an extremely gratifying project."
Personnel:
Director: Ciarán O’Reilly
Scenic Designer: Charlie Corcoran
Lighting Designer: Michael Gottlieb
Costume Designer: Orla Long
Original Music and Sound Design: Ryan Rumery and Florian Staab
Production Electrician and Lighting Programmer: Megan Peti
Production Managers: Josh Allen and Marissa Crowe
Cast: Sarah Street, Roger Casey, Kate Forbes, F. Murray Abraham
Equipment List:
43 ETC Source Four Halogen ERS @ 575w
4 ETC Source Four Halogen PAR @ 575w
5 ETC Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr
2 Chauvet Professional Ovation P-56UV
1 Rosco I-Cue Moving Mirror
1 City Theatrical DMX Iris
2 City Theatrical 6.25” Beam Bender
16 City Theatrical A-Size Template Holder
26 City Theatrical 6.25” Short Eyelash
14 City Theatrical 6.25” Short Tophat
4 City Theatrical 6.25” Full Tophat
3 City Theatrical 7.5” Short Tophat
1 City Theatrical 12” Short Tophat
2 City Theatrical Drop-In Iris for Source Four
3 City Theatrical 10-inch Table Base
1 ETC Ion Xe Console
144 ETC Sensor Dimmer
2 City Theatrical Multiverse Show Baby Wireless DMX Transceiver