Quad I + II

Quad, a series of minimalist experimental television plays made by Beckett in the 1980s for the broadcaster Süddeutscher Rundfunk, operates with a serial game involving the motional pattern of four actors, but equally accommodating four soloists, six duos, and four trios. Four actors, whose coloured hoods make them identifiable yet anonymous, accomplish a relentless closed-circuit drama. Once inside the square, they are condemned to monotonously and synchronously pace the respective six steps of the lengthwise and diagonal lines it contains, in part accompanied by varying drumbeat rhythms. 

The mathematical precision and choreography is made possible by the exactness of the timing. Choreographic variation is confined to the number of performers, and the resultant changes in colour constellations. The middle of the square, which is marked by a dot, must always be bypassed on the left-hand side. Quad (here you see the first version) is, for all its reducedness, the most dramatic of Beckett’s last teleplays. The playwright also shot a black-and-white version with four figures dressed identically in white and acting to the beat of a metronome. 

*This programme note was written in reference to the original TV production of Quad and some details will be different to our performance this evening. 
© Rudolf Frieling 

This film was recorded as part of the London Sinfonietta's "Refracted Sound" concert in November 2024. Produced by London Sinfonietta with special thanks to The Curtis Brown Group and the Southbank Centre. 

Jack Sheen  Co-Director of Quad
Rowland Hill Co-Director of Quad

Dancers: Trinity Laban Student & Alumni 
Hoi Shan Yip   
Mary Sweetnam  
Timea Szalontayova  
Kaya Blumenthal-Rothchild  
Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble