Come and Go - Synopsis

Synopsis

The play opens with three similar figures of "indeterminable" age, Flo, Vi, and Ru, sitting quietly on a narrow bench like seat surrounded by darkness. They are childhood friends who once attended "Miss Wade's" together and sitting side by side in this manner is something they used to do in the playground back then. The three characters – unusually for Beckett – wear colourful full-length coats, albeit now dulled over time; they are effectively three faded flowers. "Drab nondescript hats … shade faces."

Vi's opening line recalls the Three Witches of Shakespeare's Macbeth: "When did we three last meet?" ("When shall we three meet again?" - Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 1). "Their names, especially Ru's, recall the names of the flowers which Ophelia distributes to King Claudius and his court in her mad scene" (Hamlet - Act 4, Scene 5).

When together they make uneasy small talk. After a short time Vi, who is seated in the centre, rises and silently goes off stage. Once she is out of earshot Flo asks Ru how she thinks their absent friend is looking. "I see little change," Ru replies. Then Flo slides over to the middle to whisper an awful revelation to the other and swears her to secrecy. After this Vi returns and takes the seat vacated by Flo. The same scenario is then enacted twice more "ith choreography suggestive of the sleight-of-hand artist (button under the thimble)" and with very similar dialogue until Vi finds herself back in the middle of the group; Ru and Flo's positions have however been reversed.

In this manner all three women at one point occupy the central position and all become privy to a secret about one of the others. Beckett said the action should be: "Stiff, slow, puppet-like." The audience however does not get to hear what is whispered. The initial response in each instance is a shocked, "Oh," though Beckett specified that all three should be unique in some way.

At the play's conclusion, the three link hands "in the old way" (reminiscent of Winnie's "old style") forming an unbroken Celtic knot. Finally Flo says, "I can feel the rings", though none are apparent.