The Repeat of "Play"

When asking "why repeat the entire play", I found that there was a method to Beckett's madness. To being, the play is very fast paced with very minimal to no expression. So by having the play repeated, we'd be able to catch things that we (as the audience) didn't before. With that, it also heightens the characters reality.

In Martin Esslin's book The Theatre of the Absurd, he writes, " Beckett has attempted to achieve the impossible (the idea of"eternity" be put on to stage, especially for a play that has a run time of roughly 30 minutes) by having the entire text of Play spoken twice, identically, except that the words become faster and softer. When the third time comes round is reached the play fades from our view, but we remain aware that it will go on, ever faster, ever more softly, forever and forever" (59).

The more the audience hears it and the actors playing these characters recite it, the more haunting and eerie the play becomes.

Sources: Esslin, Martin. Theatre of the Absurd: Revised Updated Version. Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press, 1973.