‘Pass Over’ Trailer: Spike Lee Brings Antoinette Nwandu’s Play To Amazon
In late 2017,Spike Leesecretly filmed a performance ofAntoinette Nwandu’s playPass Overat Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. Now, Lee brings the filmed play, a riff on Samuel Beckett’sWaiting for Godot, to Amazon. Watch thePass Overtrailer below.
Antoinette Nwandu’s playPass Overupdates Samuel Beckett’sWaiting for Godotfor a modern audience, telling a tale of “two young black men talking trash, passing the time, and dreaming of the promised land.” In December of 2017, Spike Leetook a camera crewto Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre and filmed a performance of the play. Now, Lee’s filmed play is coming to Amazon Prime Video. In the trailer below, you see both the performance of the play and shots of the audience as they take it all in. While the filmed version of the performance is credited to Lee, the stage play itself was directed byDanya Taymor(niece of filmmakerJulie Taymor).
Pass Over Trailer
The film screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it garnered positive reviews. “More powerful than its filmed-play format might suggest,“wroteThe Hollywood Reporter. “Spike Lee has found an innovative theatrical production and brought it to blistering cinematic life,“saidThe Film Stage. “[B]y placing his cameras on stage with his actors (and in the house for sparingly used cutaways to the audience), Spike Lee has captured inPass Overboth the electrifying intimacy of actors deep in the moment and the communal power of live theater,” saidBirthMoviesDeath.
LikeWaiting for Godot,Pass Overfocuses on two men engaged in a lengthy conversation over the period of one aimless day. While filming a play might not seem like the most cinematic of ideas, the footage here looks engrossing and enveloping enough to draw the viewer in. It may not be as good as seeing the play live, but it might just be an excellent substitute.
Pass Over, starring John Michael Hill, Julian Parker, Ryan Hallahan and Blake DeLong, arrives on Amazon Prime Video onApril 20, 2018.
