Beckett, Quad and numbers
Samuel Beckett wrote plays for the television. One of them called Quad is a very precise choreography for four players. They have to follow strict rules when walking along the sides and the diagonals of a 6-step long square. They never bump into each other, even though their respective movement inevitably intersects at the center of the square. The solution is of course for each player to go round the center veering either left or right opposite to its counterpart.
Beckett has often had his characters engulf in mathematical games, repeat and loop sequences of numbers, probablitities, where sometimes solution comes to a deadlock situation. Quad is a wonderful example of how to saturate a limited, lighted space with precise movements climaxing when all parties are involved and then fading slowly away.
Watch an excerpt of this play at http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/quadrat/video/1/.
Thanks to remue.net for pointing it out (remue.net, an initiative that shows how contemporary, relevant and alive literature still is).
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