Rough for Theatre II

Rough for Theatre II (also known simply as Theatre II) is a short play by Samuel Beckett. “Although this discarded piece of theatre is dated ‘circa 1960’ in End and Odds, a manuscript from two years earlier exists in Trinity College, Dublin, Library. This situates a first version, written in French [as Fragment de théâtre II] and different from that eventually published in 1976 as between the English plays Krapp's Last Tape and Embers.” Two bureaucrat, first Bertrand (A) and then Morven (B) enter a sixth floor apartment where they find Croker (C) standing centre stage in front of an open window with his back to the audience, clearly on the point of throwing himself out of it. A pair of identical tables, lamps and chairs are there waiting for them, stage left and stage right. The set is therefore symmetrical. The name Croker is an obvious pun on the euphemism, ‘to croak’ i.e. to die, and a name to which Beckett has shown some attachment. Morven brings a briefcase with him containing... full article at wikipedia