The initial draft of 'Krapp's Last Tape' - entitled 'Magee Monologue' - was written in 1957 for the Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee (1924-82). Beckett had been particularly pleased with radio readings of his work (Molloy, Malone Dies, and From an Abandoned Work) by Magee.

The script was first published in the 'Evergreen Review' (New York) in the summer of 1958. Its stage debut, later that year, was at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 28 October, with Patrick Magee playing Krapp.

The play was televised in 1963 and again, with Beckett directing, in 1982. Indeed, Beckett had previously directed stage productions at the Schiller-Theatre Werkstatt, Berlin (1969), the Petit Théâtre d'Orsay, Paris (1975), the Greenwich Theatre, London (1976), and, with the San Quentin Workshop, Chicago (1980).

English actor, John Hurt, plays Krapp in the Beckett on Film production. 'Krapp's Last Tape' says Hurt, is about 'your perception of how you reconstruct your own life, how you accuse your old self.'

Directing 'Krapp's Last Tape' for the Beckett on Film project, Atom Egoyan comments: 'I am fascinated by human interaction with technology. In this play, Beckett explores the contrast between memory and recorded memory as Krapp reminisces on his 69th birthday, struggling to reconcile perception and reality. Technology is an enormous issue today, so Beckett's themes are hugely relevant. The human inability to communicate in reality is brought into sharp focus.'