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''Embers'' is a radio play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1957. First broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 24 June 1959, the play won the RAI prize at the Prix Italia awards later that year.〔(Prix Italia "PAST EDITIONS — WINNERS 1949 - 2007" )〕 Donald McWhinnie directed Jack MacGowran – for whom the play was specially written〔Bair, D., ''Samuel Beckett: A Biography'' (London: Vintage, 1990), p 588〕 – as "Henry", Kathleen Michael as "Ada" and Patrick Magee as "Riding Master" and "Music Master". Robert Pinget translated the work as ''Cendres'' and "The first stage production was by the French Graduate Circle of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Festival, 1977."〔Ackerley, C. J. and Gontarski, S. E., (Eds.) ''The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett'', (London: Faber and Faber, 2006), p 169〕 The most recent version of ''Embers'' was broadcast in 2006 on BBC Radio 3 and directed by Stephen Rea. The cast included Michael Gambon as Henry, Sinéad Cusack as Ada, Rupert Graves, Alvaro Lucchesi and Carly Baker.〔(BBC – Drama on 3 – ''Embers'' )〕 This production was rebroadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 16 May 2010 as part of a double bill with a 2006 production of ''Krapp's Last Tape''. Opinions vary as to whether the work succeeds. Hugh Kenner calls it "Beckett’s most difficult work" and yet maintains that the piece "coheres to perfection,"〔Kenner, H., ''Samuel Beckett: A Critical Study'' (London: John Calder, 1962), p 174〕 John Pilling disagrees, remarking that ''Embers'' "is the first of Beckett’s dramatic works that seems to lack a real centre,"〔Pilling, J., ''Samuel Beckett'' (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976), p 98〕 whereas Richard N. Coe considers the play "not only minor, but one of () very few failures."〔Coe, R. N., ''Beckett'' (London: Oliver & Boyd, 1964), p 102〕 Anthony Cronin records in his biography of Beckett that "Embers met with a mixed reception (tempers this comment by noting that ) the general tone of English criticism was somewhat hostile to Beckett"〔Cronin, A., ''Samuel Beckett The Last Modernist'' (London: Flamingo, 1997), p 490〕 at the time. The author’s own view was that it was a "rather ragged" text.〔Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p 446〕 He said that it was "not very satisfactory, but I think just worth doing … I think it just gets by for radio."〔Zilliacus, C., ''Beckett and Broadcasting: A Study of the Works of Samuel Beckett for Television and Radio'' (Åbo, Åbo Akademi, 1976), p 76〕 For all his personal reservations the play won the RAI prize in the 1959 Prix Italia contest, not, as has been often reported, "the ''actual'' Prix Italia … which went to John Reeve’s play, ''Beach of Strangers''."〔Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p 790 n 4〕 ==Synopsis== The play opens with the sea in the distance and the sound of footsteps on shingle. Henry has been walking along the strand close to where he has lived his whole life, at one time or other on either side of "a bay or estuary".〔Lyons, C. R., ''Samuel Beckett'', MacMillan Modern Dramatists (London: MacMillan Education, 1983), p 114〕 Henry starts to talk, a single word, "on," followed by the sea again, followed by the voice – louder and more insistent this time, repeating the same word, as it will say, then repeat as a command, the words "stop" and "down." Each time, Henry obediently yet reluctantly does what his voice first says, then tells him to do, he stops and sits down on the shingle. Throughout the play the sea acts like a character in its own right (much as the light in Play does). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Embers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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