About the work
One-act play by Samuel Beckett, written around 1974 and first performed on 20 May 1976 as part of a Beckett festival at the Royal Court Theatre in London to mark Beckett's 70th birthday – on the same evening as the premiere of "Footfalls." Beckett wrote the piece for actor Patrick Magee.
Plot
An old face suspended in darkness listens to three recorded voices narrating three different stages in the same person's life: a childhood memory, a youthful romantic encounter, and a solitary old age spent in a library. At the end, the face breaks into an enigmatic smile.
Cultural significance
By splitting a single figure into three narrating voices, "That Time" ranks among Beckett's most formally radical treatments of memory and identity; the face's closing smile has prompted numerous, still unresolved interpretations.