Beckett Is Getting the Star Treatment

John Gielgud stands like a mannequin throughout most of his final screen appearance, in Samuel Beckett’s “Catastrophe.” He’s playing an actor who’s putty in the hands of a dictatorial stage director, portrayed by Harold Pinter.

With David Mamet as the director of the six-minute “Catastrophe,” it’s hard to recall a film of this length that had more star names affiliated with it.

The six other films in “Stage on Screen: Beckett on Film,” Sunday on KCET and KVCR, are also shorts. They were filmed as part of an ambitious project by Irish producers Michael Colgan and Alan Moloney that created new screen versions of all 19 of Beckett’s plays. PBS’ “Stage on Screen” is presenting two programs from the project: this initial round-up of seven short plays and a “Waiting for Godot” that’s slated for New Year’s Day.

The opening program offers an impressive variety of approaches to Beckett, woven together with documentary material narrated by Jeremy Irons. Considering the abstruse nature of some of the plays, the commentary helps make the material more viewer-friendly. But it also imparts the feeling of a classroom exercise at times.

“Catastrophe” is up first. It’s unsettling to see Pinter’s scowling character instruct his young assistant (Rebecca Pidgeon) to prod and poke and expose Gielgud’s aged flesh. Star casting pays off here.

Narrator Irons points out that the two roles in “Ohio Impromptu” were designed to be played by actors who look like each other and that Charles Sturridge’s film version enables them to look exactly alike by casting one actor (Irons) in both roles. It’s a point well taken. Certainly the casting helps us appreciate that both the silent man and the one who’s recalling memories are different halves of the same character. This becomes even more apparent at the end, as the film medium allows one of the characters to simply evaporate.

Film also comes in handy at the end of “Come and Go,” in which the three women who come and go and whisper about each other are finally united by a close-up of their clasped hands.

If you leave the room for snacks, you may miss the 45-second “Breath,” directed by Damien Hirst. The camera sweeps over a littered landscape to the accompaniment of one breath. On second thought, go get those snacks; this one doesn’t amount to much.

“Play” is usually staged with a tight spotlight taking turns focusing on the two women and one man, trapped in urns, who endlessly discuss their romantic triangle. Here, instead of the lights, the camera moves. And in the background, director Anthony Minghella depicts a field of similarly encased people, whose final hum implies a whole world of stasis. Alan Rickman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliet Stevenson play the lovers, their faces encrusted in sores.

“Act Without Words II” suggests the infant days of cinema as two silent clowns go through their daily routines on a gleaming white background that looks like a film strip. Enda Hughes directed.

“What Where,” directed by Damien O’Donnell, is the only over-produced film in the bunch, with an elaborate set, sci-fi-style costumes and unnecessary overhead shots.

“Stage on Screen: Beckett on Film” airs Sunday from 10 to 11:30 p.m. on KCET and KVCR.