Krapp's Last Tape

Beckett has set his play “Krapp’s Last Tape” in “A late evening in the future.” Also, the play is a reliving of old memories. The result is a depiction which takes place entirely out of the present. The lighting is also important in differentiating between the present and the future during the play because only the “table and immediately adjacent area” are in the light, while everything else is “in darkness”. The result of the lighting is that only memory is replayed and recorded in the light, only memory can be seen or perceived. The present occurs in the dark and cannot be seen. For example, Krapp get’s up to go have a drink or three offstage and in the dark. But the lines of the play which are only recollections of recollection are all in the light. The implications are that only in memory can one perceive. We cannot think or experience the present, we simply remember an experience. What we experience in “the present” must be first conceptualized in the mind and it is a memory of this conceptualization which we actually experience. Also, one must take present experience and judge its relationship to previous memories in order to conceptualize meaning from present experiences. Therefore, the play entirely about memory is placed in the future, because one may remember the past or ponder the future, but it is highly unlikely that he can experience the present.