About the work
One-act play by Samuel Beckett, written in English between March and December 1975 and first performed on 20 May 1976 as part of a Beckett festival at the Royal Court Theatre in London – on the same evening as "That Time," and likewise to mark Beckett's 70th birthday. Beckett directed the premiere himself, with Billie Whitelaw as May. The German-language premiere followed on 1 October 1976 at the Schillertheater in Berlin, again under Beckett's own direction.
Plot
The ageing May paces back and forth along a precisely measured, short strip of stage floor, while the voice of her mother, never seen and lying in darkness, keeps questioning this restless walking. Divided into four sections marked by a chime and shifting light, the footsteps and voice condense into an almost musical score.
Cultural significance
Beckett insisted on a metronome-exact rhythm for the steps; in the premiere, Billie Whitelaw wore shoes lined with sandpaper so her footsteps would carry. "Footfalls" is regarded as one of the formally strictest examples of Beckett's late fusion of sound, movement and text.