Narrator; Watt \u2013 Aaron Almog
Mercier \u2013 Sasson Gabbai
Camier \u2013 Avinoam Mor-Haim
Guard \u2013 Shalom Keinan
Gentleman in Park \u2013 Danni Mudja
Helen \u2013 Neta Plotzky
Madden \u2013 Uri Avrahami
Hostel manager Gahst \u2013 Shalom Keinan
George the Bartender \u2013 Uri Avrahami
Terez \u2013 Neta Plotzky
Koner \u2013 Danni Mudja
Policeman – Danni Mudja<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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“Mercier and Camier” was written in the beginning of Samuel Beckett\u2019s \u201cFrench phase\u201d, in 1946, two years before “Waiting for Godot” was written, but was only published in 1970. Beckett himself titled his book \u201ca novel\u201d, but in effect “Mercier and Camier” can be referred to as a hybrid, as it lies somewhere between a novel and a play. This is an interesting moment in Beckett\u2019s literary development: up to that point Beckett considered himself to be first and foremost an author of prose, and it is true that in “Mercier and Camier” one can find the foundations of his mature prose, which reaches its perfection in the trilogy; yet it is equally true that in this book the theatrical components are just as evident as the prosaic ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dialogues \u2013 between two characters or more \u2013 are built as \u201cscenes\u201d, and the precise descriptions of body movements and facial expressions literally demand that they would be translated into stage directions. In terms of abstraction, “Mercier and Camier” can be graded as the stage that precedes “Waiting for Godot”. In “Mercier and Camier” we know certain things about the lives of the main characters, and though they might be few and scattered, some details tie the location of the plot to a certain place, probably to Dublin and its suburbs. As “Vladimir and Estragon”, “Mercier and Camier” know as well that to truly live is not an option; the only possibility left is to pretend to be \u201cliving\u201d until \u201cthis whole business is finally over\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Edited from \u201cOn Mercier and Camier\u201d by Mulli Meltzer (the translator of the novel to Hebrew), in the programmer of “Mercier and Camier”]\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The staging of the novel in the Jerusalem Khan attempts to emphasize the tension between Beckett\u2019s two different styles of writing \u2013 the prose and the drama. Two plays occur simultaneously on the stage, one next to and depending on the other: one is Mercier and Camier\u2019s journey that is full of hardships, the other is the monodrama of that \u201cthird person\u201d that \u201cwas with them all the time\u201d, that is present with them through the whole duration of the play, and that conducts a journey full of hardships in the cellars of his memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The materialization of this tension stresses the extent to which the narrator of Beckett\u2019s differs from the traditional one. Beckett\u2019s narrator is not omniscient, and he does not activate the characters; Mercier and Camier put their trust in their belongings, which grow fewer and fewer, while he clings onto words, words that will grow more and more fractured in the mouths of the narrators of Beckett\u2019s future novels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The narrator and Mercier and Camier go through a parallel process of decadence that reaches its pick where at the end of the play a full stop in movement is suggested: \u201cBut all day that is how it is, from the first tick to the last tack, or rather from the third to the antepenultimate, allowing for the time it needs, the tamtam within, to drum you back into the dream and drum you back out again. And in between all are heard, every millet grain that falls, you look behind and there you are, every day a little closer, all life a litter closer. Joy in saltspoonfuls, like water when it’s thirst you’re dying of, and a bonny little agony homeopathically distilled, what more can you ask?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story of the journey that slowly dies out, echoing back and forth between the narrator and the characters, as the movement of a pendulum that grows endlessly shorter \u2013 a movement so essential to Beckett\u2019s world. [Extract from: Michal Govrin, \u201cAbout the Play\u201d, in the programme of “Marcier and Camier”]<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/new.michalgovrin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/\u05de\u05ea\u05d5\u05da-\u05d4\u05ea\u05db\u05e0\u05d9\u05d9\u05d4-\u05e9\u05dc-\u05de\u05e8\u05e1\u05d9\u05d4-\u05d5\u05e7\u05d0\u05de\u05d9\u05d4-1.png\")
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The movement was emphasized in this performance more than any other theatrical mean. At some points the words are only used as an external outline that accompanies the movements and demonstrates the vibrations of the mind. The emptiness of the stage and the essence of the movement influence the objects and the old clothing, to function as pieces of rudimentary life. The only instrumental accompaniment in the play is the sounds made by the steps of the characters, their voices, the moments of silence and the rhythm of movement, while the lighting that opens and closes the horizon above the course of the movement reflects the vibrations of the landscape, of the physical world, from which Mercier and Camier fail to escape in order to finally go out on their journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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