Krapp's Last Tape
by Samuel Beckettliterary work· published 1959
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Krapp's Last Tape is a 1958 one-act play, in English, by Samuel Beckett. With a cast of one man, it was written for an Irish actor Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue". It was inspired by Beckett's experience of listening to Magee reading extracts from Molloy and From an Abandoned Work on the BBC Third Programme in December 1957. It is considered to be among Beckett’s major dramas.
Adaptations (2)
Krapp's Last Tape has been adapted into 2 films, from 1969 to 2020. The most recent is Friend of the World (2020).
Krapp’s Last Tape1969 · film · 58 min · dir. Atom Egoyan · IMDb ↗IMDb7.0In Krapp's Last Tape, which was written in English in 1958, an old man reviews his life and assesses his predicament. We learn about him not from the 69-year-old man on stage, but from his 39-year-old self on the tape he chooses to listen to. On the 'awful occasion' of his birthday, Krapp was then and is now in the habit of reviewing the past year and 'separating the grain from the husks'. He isolates memories of value, fertility and nourishment to set against creeping death 'when all my dust has settled'. One part of 19 parts for series "Beckett on Film" featuring filmed versions of Beckett plays, some screened at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival and some on Channel 4 television in the UK in June 2001.
Friend of the World2020 · film · 50 min · dir. Brian Patrick Butler · IMDb ↗IMDb4.691%After a catastrophic war, an eccentric general leads a filmmaker through a bunker as paranoia escalates and reality begins to fracture. Blending dark comedy with psychological and body horror, this post-apocalyptic thriller explores isolation, storytelling, and the fragile boundary between truth and delusion.
