‘We are not trying to do this play realistically or psychologically, but musically.’
– Beckett

Footfalls is comprised of four movements, a growing darkness, punctuated by a fading chime, separating each movement from the next.

The introductory mother-daughter dialogue, echoed within the mother’s monologue of the second phase, finds its ‘sequel’ in her daughter’s narration of the tale about another mother-daughter relationship in the third movement. The same style mirrors both relationships:

Second movement	Third movement
V: What do you mean, May, not enough, what can you possibly mean, May, not enough?	Mrs W: What do you mean, Amy, to put it mildly, what can you possibly mean, Amy, to put it mildly?

The two narratives share a parallel patterning:

The second movement closes with the voice of May’s mother:	The third movement closes with the voice of Amy’s mother:
Tells how it was. [Pause.] Tries to tell how it was. [Pause.] It all. [Pause.] It all. [M continues pacing. Five seconds. Fade out on strip. All in darkness, Steps cease. Pause. Chime a little fainter still. Pause for echoes. Fade up to a little less still on strip. Rest in darkness. M discovered facing front at R.]	Will you never have done? [Pause.] Will you never have done… revolving it all? [Pause.] It? [Pause.] It all. [Pause.] In your poor mind. [Pause.] It all. [Pause.] It all. [Pause. Fade out on strip. All in darkness. Pause. Chime even a little fainter still. Pause for echoes. Fade up to even a little less still on strip. No trace of May.]

As measured as May’s footsteps is the counterpointing of voices competing to create a ‘semblance’ of dialogue:

M:

Mrs W: Perhaps it was just my fancy. Amy: Just what exactly, Mother, did you perhaps fancy it was? [Pause.] Just what exactly, Mother, did you perhaps fancy this…strange thing was you observed? [Pause.] Mrs W: You yourself observed nothing…strange? Amy: No, Mother, I myself did not, to put it mildly. Mrs W: What do you mean, Amy, to put it mildly, what can you possibly mean, Amy, to put it mildly? Amy: I mean, Mother, that to say I observed nothing…strange is indeed to put it mildly. For I observed nothing of any kind, strange or otherwise. I saw nothing, heard nothing, of any kind.

Footfalls orchestrates time’s endlessness through the ‘clearly audible rhythmic tread’, beginning on the right with the right foot, on the left with the left foot, wheeling rightabout at the left and leftabout at the right, pacing one two three four five six seven eight nine steps in both directions. With each movement, the pacing becomes ever slower, the light ever darker, the chime (and its echoes) ever fainter and the tone ever quieter until the ‘clearly audible rhythmic tread’ ends in silence and, like May/Amy, we hear nothing.