Krapp's Last Tape and Breath as Algorithmic Performances: A Heuristic

Samuel Beckett's Breath and Krapp's Last Tape feature stage directions as algorithms that show basic human processes or actions as amenable to programmatic interpretation. Both texts highlight repeated actions and inscribe this repetition into the language and/or the looping behaviors of the characters. Emphasizing the inchoate algorithms these texts contain underscores the connection between Beckett's dramatic ideas and contemporaneous discourses on the computability of physical and mental states.