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
Rough for Theatre II in the ending, leaving it open to various interpretations such as Croker may be crying (justifying the handkerchief), smiling, was dead prior to A and B’s arrival or else died during the process. Despite working up the text for publication in the seventies, "Rough for Theatre II" clearly looks back to "Waiting for Godot" and "Endgame" rather than forward to the later plays. Had Beckett actually written the play later it would have borne a greater resemblance to "That Time", "Eh Joe" or "Ghost Trio", Morvan and Bertrand’s characters being reduced to disembodied voices. In these three plays, the central