Das letzte Band

by Samuel Beckett

And yet another war.
And yet another catastrophe—caused by Homo sapiens.

Humankind confronts its own deeds as if they were an echo of the past.

History repeats itself—as tragedy, as farce, as the habit of a species that seems incapable of learning. The grand ideas of a better world have been lost between hope and decay.
It is against this backdrop that we encounter Samuel Beckett’s *The Last Tape*.
A primitive man appears. Then the break: The stage becomes a barren landscape outside of time. Krapp sheds his robe. The ape becomes an old rationalist—a modern Sisyphus who, in an endless loop, listens to the voices of his past. He waits. For memory. For meaning. For a life that has slipped away from him.
Beckett’s character becomes the collective “I.” A clown, trapped in a ritual of recorded voices, memories, and gestures—searching for himself without ever coming any closer.

Stage, music, and video merge into a haunting theatrical performance about memory, failure, and self-alienation. Directed by Kostas Papakostopoulos, Beckett’s work becomes a mirror of our present—a world that recognizes its catastrophes and yet carries on.

Concept & Direction: Kostas Papakostopoulos | Set Design & Costumes: Zezo Dinekov | Music & Video: Herbert Mitschke | Dramaturg: Erika Walter | Lighting: Thomas Mörl | Makeup Artist: Birgit Riedl | Graphics: Andreas Tsortanidis | Krapp: Lisa Sophie Kusz

Cultural Affairs Office of the City of Cologne