by Samuel Beckett
Wayland Baptist University
October 1998

With this piece, Beckett tells the story of one man's estranged relationship with his wife and mistress. Like Molly Sweeney, the structure of this piece is that of three intertwining monologues telling one story from three perspectives. Beckett wanted the three actors to be set side-by-side in ash cans each illuminated only when they spoke. However, fearing that I might lose my audience immediately, I began searching for a more palatable way to stage this play.

To do this, I first decided that these creatures were dead. The characters were speaking from purgatory in a constant attempt to clear their names. This play is the best example of absurdest theatre aligned with the myth of Sisyphus. Over and over they tell their stories into the light striving to account for their troubled lives. The light itself is a character. It is both judge and tormentor. I began envisioning the characters as if they were in cells. The light would come on and command them to speak. They would sit in their cell and do so, over and over.

I wanted each character to inhabit character specific cells. Man was up center stage sitting in a chair near a small table. Woman 1 was down stage left at a kitchen table, and Woman 2 was perched down stage right on a stool before a large mirror. It was conceivable to me that each character's purgatory was specific to the life they had lived. Woman 2's vanity condemned her to scrutinize her appearance in the mirror for eternity. Woman 1 was forced to sit at a kitchen table, eggbeater in hand, to account for her sins. Man was literally in a cell. He spent eternity smoking and telling his tale. The overall feel of this piece was akin to film noir.