MS. Pages: | 01r - 04v | 05r - 05r |


for Reading University
Library - Sam. Beckett

[0001] Stage dark but for MOUTH, upstage audience R, 8 ft. above stage level, faintly lit from close up and below. upper face in shadow, invisible microphone. [0002] AUDITOR, downstage audience L, tall upright figure enveloped from head to foot in loose black djellaba, fully faintly lit, [⁁]standing on invisible podium 4' high, shown by attitude alone to be facing diagonally across stage intent on MOUTH, dead still throughout but for single brief movement where indicated. Stage light on when curtain up.
[0003] As house lights down voice unintelligible behind curtain. House lights out. Voice continues unintelligible behind curtain, 10 seconds. As curtain rises... birth...into this world...birth...into this world...ad lib. leading when curtain fully up into
|
[0004] ...birth...into this world...this world... tiny little thing... before its time...in a godfor - ...what? girl?... all right...tiny little girl...birth into this...in a godforsaken hole...in the bog...named - ...what?...what?... ...no...no!...the bog...godforsaken hole in the bog...named...named... gone...no matter......[0005] parents unknown...[⁁]unheard of... he having vanished ...thin air...no sooner ... buttoned [✓] |


[0011] which had first occurred to her...[⁁]sudden flash...brought up as she had been to believe (laugh)...with the other waifs (laugh)...in a merciful (laugh)...God (laugh)...first occurred to her...then dismissed...as foolish...was perhaps not so foolish...after all...so on...all that...[0012]till another thought long after...very childish really but - ...what?...the buzzing?...yes...all the time the buzzing...so-called!...in the ears...though of course actually...not in the ears at all...in the skull...the heart of the skull...and all the time...this beam or ray...like from a moon...but no doubt not...just all part of the wish to...torment...but not in the least...not a twinge...for the moment...ha!...for the moment...then this other thought...very childish really but so like her...that she might do well to groan...on and off...(writhe she could not)...as though in actual...agony...[0013]but could not bring herself...some flaw in her make-up...incapable of deceit...[0014]dead silence of course...but for the buzzing...so-called!...[0015]no part of her moving...that she could feel...only the eyelids...presumably...from time to time...to rest her from the light...faint as it was...reflex they call it...no feeling of any kind...but the lids...even at the best of times...who feels them?...opening...shutting...all that moisture...[0016]but the brain still sufficiently...oh very much so!...at this stage... in control...under control...to question the matter..for on that April morning...so it reasoned...that April morning...she fixing with her eye...a distant cowslip...as she hastened towards it...fixing it with her eye...lest it elude her...had not all gone out...all that light...of itself...without any...any...on her part...and so on...so on it reasoned......vain questionings...and all dead still...thought silent as the grave...impossible to describe...when suddenly...gradually...she real - ...what?...the buzzing?...yes all dead still but for the buzzing...so-called!...[0017]when suddenly she realized...words were - what?... who?...what?...no... NO!...she...realized words were coming...WORDS WERE COMING!...a voice she did not recognize...at first...it was so long...since she had uttered...[0018]but had finally to admit...to herself...could be no other...than her own...certain vowel sounds...she had never heard...elsewhere...so that people would look [0018]at her...on the rare occasions...uncomprehending...an unbroken stream |


[0019] not as much as goodbye...how she survived..: |


[0029] herself...wouldn't know if she heard...then forgiven...merciful God...tender mercies...new every morning |
[0036]Curtain full down. House dark. Voice continues behind curtain, unintelligible, ten seconds, ceases as house lights up.

DOODLE 1
Becket
MS. Pages: | 01r - 04v | 05r - 05r |