Souvenirs à voir ou à entendre: Cette fois et La dernière bande

Among Beckett’s dramaticules, That Time emphasizes most strongly the desire of the elderly to tell their memories. Questioning our ability to listen, this dramaticule creates a disjunction between seeing and hearing – the former inviting an immediate enjoyment of meaning, the latter privileging resonance, sharing, and duration. In Robert Wilson’s production of Krapp’s Last Tape, the denial of aging is a consequence of his decision to let seeing dominate at the expense of hearing, and this choice leads us to bring up the question of the reparative function of theater.