Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
That Time / Cette fois

MS-UoR-1477-1

MS. Pages: 01r - 05r 06r - 10r 11r - 13r
[p. 11r]
C3

C3

[0040] always winter then always raining year after year winter and rain always going in somewhere to get out of the cold & wet sopping in the old green coat places you didn't have to pay to get in like the Public Library that was another time great thing free culture in bad weather far from home

[0053] when you went into the Public Library out of the cold & wet was that the time what was it then you were never the same after something to do with dust was it then that last try nothing else left to try

[0053] sitting at the big round table with a lot of old ones reading their books & not a sound to be heard [0056] only the leaves turning and then something to do with dust whole place suddenly full of dust [0056] opened your eyes and nothing but dust nothing to be seen from floor to ceiling only dust and not a sound only come & gone come & gone no one come & gone in no time

[0030] never looked back after that

[0030] turning-point that was a great word with you before they dried up and only one the first & last that time you were curled up like a worm in the slime in the dark & xxx & they lugged you out & dried you off & straightened you up that was your turning-point never had another after that never looked back after that

[0047]

that time what time no time but the one time

[0056] come & gone born & died born & died get me born & died in no time

[p. 12r]
C4

C4

[0047] []that time in the Post Office that was another another refuge out of the cold & wet that time in the Post Office pushed open the door like anyone else and made straight for the table neither right nor left straight to the long table with all the forms to fill [0047] in and the ballpoint kindly provided at the end of a chain sat down and was taking a look round for once before dozing away [0050] perhaps just fear of attack or ejection having clearly no business in the place not to mention your personal appearance & monopolizing into the bargain [0050] space that could ill be spared a look around then with some apprehension at your fellow men & women thanking God again bad & all as you were you were not as they till it began to dawn that for all the attention you were getting you might as well not have been there at [0050] all the eyes passing over you and going through you as though you were so much thin air never resting on you with the usual abhorrence but passing by you or over you or through you as though you were so much thin air was that the time or was that another time an earlier time a later time

[0001]

[0057|001] 5 s [0057] Silence. [0057|002] Ten seconds. [0058] Breath just audible. [0059] After 3 seconds eyes open.

C4

[0047] always winter then year after year or as if it couldn't die the old year couldn't end stuck in December day after day the shortest day the longest night like time could go no further earth go no further

[0001] The differentiation of A B C
as shades of the same shd.
be sufficiently conveyed
by diversity of source &
theme. If not it may be
indicated by selective
recording

DIRECTIONS

[0007] All in darkness except the Listener's face spotlit about 8' above stage level midstage off centre.

[0008] Old face & long flowing white hair as if seen from above spread on a pillows .

[0009] The voices A B C are his own coming to him from both sides & above (see note) [0010] They relay one another without any break in general flow except when silences indicated

[p. 13r]

[0006] darkness but for Listener's face spotlit about 8' above stage level. [0008] Old face, long flowing white hair as when seen from above spread on a pillow. [0009] The recorded voices []A B & C see note[] he hears are his own coming to him from both sides and above. [0010] They relay each other without any break in general flow except when pauses or silences indicated.

[0012] Silence, 7 seconds. [0013] Listener's eyes are open.

[0004]

[0004]

[0004] If differentiation of voices

[0004] If strange dispersion in space and

[0004] If dif. of voices not sufficiently clear through dispersion in space and of context it should be reinforced by quality of recording

[0004]

[0004] If spatial & thematic

[0004] If triple location & thematic diversity insufficient to differentiate the voices recording should be used

[0004] A B C are modes of the same. If this distinction not conveyed by triple location & thematic diversity it should be

[0004] If triple location and thematic diversity prove insufficient to convey this distinction it should be underscored by

[0004] shd. be distinguishable as modes shades of the same. thematic diversity insufficient to convey this effect it should be sought diversity of the recording.

MS. Pages: 01r - 05r 06r - 10r 11r - 13r