Krapp's Last Tape Krapp's Last Tape Krapp's Last Tape is a one-act play, in English, by Samuel Beckett. With a cast of one man, it was written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue". (Patrick Magee is familiar to many moviegoers as the writer who Alex cripples while invading his home and raping his wife in "A Clockwork Orange".) It was inspired by Beckett's experience of listening to Magee reading extracts from "Molloy" and "From an Abandoned Work" on the BBC Third Programme in December 1957. The play was first performed as a curtain raiser to "Endgame" (from 28
Krapp's Last Tape Parsons, adapted "Krapp's Last Tape" for piano, two pre-recorded pianos, and voice on tape. The piece, specifically written for John Tilbury, was called "Krapp Music". The play was memorably parodied in the television sketch comedy "The Fast Show", in which – as a reference to Max Wall – fictional music hall comedian Arthur Atkinson played a comically more stoic version of Krapp. It is also the title of a track on Fredrik Thordendal's solo album Sol Niger Within. A prefiguring of the play, titled, "Krapp, 39" written and performed by Michael Laurence and directed by George Demas, premiered at the