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Samuel Beckett
Stage in darkness but for MOUTH, upstage audience right, about 8 feet above stage level. <br> AUDITOR, downstage audience left, tall standing figure, sex undeterminable, enveloped from head to foot in loose black djellaba
An actress is seated on stage with just her mouth spot-lit. The mouth delivers a long stream of consciousness. Evasion is the principle theme, as is highlighted by Beckett's note to the text in which the mouth's chief endeavour throughout the play is a 'vehement refusal to relinquish the third person'. The mouth undergoes a desperate struggle to avoid saying 'I', marked by four moments of crisis in which her monologue becomes a question and answer with an inner voice not heard by the audience.
Plays General
One Act
1
2
The writer has specified that the sex of the auditor character be undeterminable.
September 1972
First performed at the Forum Theater, the Lincoln Center, New York.
Samuel Beckett: The Complete Dramatic Works
1986
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The information for this entry was taken from 'Samuel Beckett: Collected Plays' (Faber and Faber, 1986) and from various other sources.
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