About the work
One-act play by Samuel Beckett, written in English as "Play" but first staged in German translation on 14 June 1963 at the Ulmer Theatre in Ulm, directed by Deryk Mendel – nearly a year before the English-language premiere in 1964 at the Old Vic in London. Beckett closely reviewed Elmar Tophoven's German translation and attended the final rehearsals in Ulm.
Plot
A man, his wife and his mistress, buried up to their necks in three grey urns, recount their love triangle in clipped, fragmented sentences. Each speaks only when a roving spotlight falls on their face, and their conflicting versions of the affair repeat from the beginning once the sequence ends.
Cultural significance
Beckett himself described the piece as composed almost like a musical fugue, built from the interplay of the three voices. Coolly received at its London premiere, "Play" is now regarded as one of the most rigorous examples of Beckett reducing theatre to light, voice and repetition.