Anna, I am quite happy to let this posting sit and wait unanswered for as long as it takes. There is no rush. Are you ready for the longest posting on this MB?
Basically Embers was written by Beckett in 1959, being commissioned by The Third Programme. (Has Radio 3 commissioned any plays recently?) It is a short play lasting about half an hour. Most of it is a monologue by the main character Henry, who sits alone (or is he?) on a shingle beach, talking to the spirit of his deceased father. When he doesn’t reply he calls up his wife Ada, who appears as a distant voice, her movements make no sound. Presumably she is dead too. They talk about their child Addie, a miserable, lonely, demanding thing whose life training (such as playing the piano or riding) always ends in tears: “she must learn, she
will learn.” Is Addie dead too? It is never clear what happened to her or Ada. Nor is it clear how his father died – apparently drowned: “we never found your body, you know. That held up probate an unconscionable time. They said there was nothing to prove you hadn’t run away and were alive and well somewhere in the Argentine for example. That grieved mother greatly.” Towards the end of the play an incident is recalled from Henry and Ada’s courting days, just before the father’s death, when there was a fracas in the family home. Nothing is clearly stated, but could Henry have played a part in the death of his father (if it happened), or was it suicide?
Meanwhile there is another play within this play, made up by Henry’s imagination: Bolton, an old man who has called Holloway, his doctor, out on a freezing snowy night. It is never stated what Bolton wants, but a vivid scene is painted of Bolton, “standing there in his old red dressing gown... no light, just the light of the fire… dying glow… embers…” pleading desperately with Holloway: “please,
please.” The doctor refuses the request (whatever it is): “call a man out, an old friend, in the cold and dark, an old friend, urgent need, bring the bag, then not a word, no explanation, no heat, no light…” …ghastly scene, wishes to God he hadn't come, no good, fire out, bitter cold, great trouble, white world, not a sound, no good… No good.
The writing is vivid but vague. There are long pauses, also odd sounds called up by Henry: the drip of a tap, the gallop of hooves. And all the while there is the sound of the sea in the background.
It was performed brilliantly by Michael Gambon on the radio on Beckett night last April
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/beckettnight/pip/k1il2/and obviously originally, but has it been heard on the radio any other time?
So does this ring a bell with anyone? Who WILL be with me now (or over the next few months - I can wait) to discuss this play?
