Eleutheria (play) Eleutheria (play) Eleutheria (sometimes rendered Eleuthéria: see image) is a play by Samuel Beckett, written in French in 1947. It was his first completed dramatic endeavor ( Samuel Johnson). Roger Blin considered staging it in the early 1950s, but opted for "Waiting for Godot", because its smaller cast size made it easier to stage. At this point, Beckett suppressed the manuscript. Beckett later recycled the name "Krap" (with two Ps) for his play "Krapp's Last Tape". In 1985, Beckett's longtime American publisher, Barney Rosset, was fired after a buyout of Grove Press. Beckett offered to help Rosset, and proposed translating
Krapp's Last Tape déclassé but still indubitably Irish and thus ideally fitted for the performance of Beckett ... As an actor, he had the good sense to see that one played Beckett for the weight and mood of the words and the situation without bothering about the ultimate philosophical import. The Canadian actor Donald Davis played Krapp in the North American premiere production of "Krapp's Last Tape". "The New York Times" reported that Davis "won an Obie Award in 1960 for his performance as the lonely, solitary Krapp, playing the tapes of his life and re-experiencing decades of regret." Later, "Krapp's Last Tape,"