That Time - Genesis

Genesis

Beckett initially wrote continuous prose for each of the three voice-aspects, then intercalated them into 36 verse paragraphs which are presented in a manner similar to Play according to the following order:

Beckett is known to have had a long-standing preoccupation with musical structure. Time duration dictated where the breaks would come as he planned 3 x 5 minutes of speech with silences after 5 minutes and 10 minutes. The pauses “follow moments in which each of the voices confronts a moment of doubt, spatial, temporal or psychological confusion”.

Early drafts include many biographical reminiscence, some of which still makes their way into the final version. Barrington’s Tower became Foley’s Folly to capitalise on the alliteration, “the number 11 bus, would only take him to the suburb of Clonskeagh leaving him with a five mile walk to” the folly and the “Doric terminus” is the boarded up Harcourt Street railway terminus in Dublin. The Portrait Gallery, Library and Post Office suggest London where Beckett lived for two years in the Thirties.

The title has a double meaning, referring to a specific period of time and also to time in general. This is clear from the French translation Beckett made where there is no one word which conveys this duplicity of meaning and although he opted for Cette Fois as the title in French, he translated ‘time’ as ‘fois’, ‘temps’ and ‘heure’ depending on the context.