Details

Release year: 2001

Storyline

A stage director and his female assistant find the blackest protagonist possible, then make him up as white as possible, to create the titular character.

Top credits

Directors

David Mamet

Writers

Samuel Beckett

Cast

Harold Pinter — The Director
Rebecca Pidgeon — The Director's Assistant
John Gielgud — The Protagonist

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Did you know

• This was John Gielgud's final acting role before his death on May 21, 2000 at the age of 96.

• Released in the UK & Ireland by Clarence Pictures as part of a 4-disc DVD boxset "Beckett on Film", catalog# CLA 540, featuring "19 Films X 19 Directors" with filmed versions of all the stage plays written by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, along with documentary Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film (2002) about the making of the project. Originally ten of these filmed versions were screened as part of the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in Canada. These were: Act Without Words I (2002) dir. by Karel Reisz, Catastrophe (2001) dir. by David Mamet, Endgame (2000) dir. by Conor McPherson, Happy Days (2000) dir. by Patricia Rozema, Krapp's Last Tape (2000) dir. by Atom Egoyan, Not I (2000) dir. by Neil Jordan, Play (2001) dir. by Anthony Minghella, Rockaby (2001) dir. by Sir Richard Eyre, Rough for Theatre I (2000) dir. by Kieron J. Walsh, What Where (2000) dir. by Damien O'Donnell. Some were later also broadcast on television, originally from June 2001 into 2002, by Channel 4 in the UK and RTÉ in Ireland; the two broadcasters that formed the five companies on the project. The main production companies were Blue Angel Films and Tyrone Productions in association with Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland (then known as Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board).

• One of the 19 films made as part of project "Beckett on Film" (2000), featuring all of the stage plays written by Irish writer Samuel Beckett. Eight were shown in the US on PBS program Stage On Screen: Beckett On Film (2002), premiering on September 15, 2002 and January 1, 2003: Catastrophe (2001) dir. by David Mamet, Ohio Impromptu (2002) dir. by Charles Sturridge, Come and Go (2000) dir. by John Crowley, Breath (2001) dir. by Damien Hirst, Play (2001) dir. by Anthony Minghella, Act Without Words II (2001) dir. by Enda Hughes, What Where (2000) dir. by Damien O'Donnell, Waiting for Godot (2001) dir. by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.