Ohio Impromptu

I first stumbled upon this Samuel Beckett playlet months ago when I was gathering ideas for entries centered around poetry, which was suggested by my friend Jessica and cousin Eric.  These two have degrees in writing and literature while I, a biologist, recall being terrified by the prospect of presenting an analysis of Heinrich Heine's poetry for a German Literature class full of writing/literature majors in college.  I still would like to know whose brilliant idea it was to have the only science major in the entire class attempt that task when, to this day, the only poetry that actually 'speaks' to me is that of William Blake and Shel Silverstein.  So before I attempt more scary tasks in the realm of poetry, I'm going to go with something I feel a bit more at home with: prose, especially of the morose and existential variety.  
        

And now seems a more appropriate time than any to tackle this entry  as I look at the books belonging to the young man from whom I'm subletting.  This young German student has an apparent penchant for Beckett as three of the 12 volumes on his shelf are either about or by the Irish playwright.
         

The playlet 'Ohio Impromptu' was written in 1980 as a favor for S.E. Gontarski, who requested a dramatic piece to be performed at an academic symposium in Columbus, Ohio in honor of Beckett's seventy-fifth birthday.  While the location of the symposium most likely factored in the title, it has also been suggested that the title is very important in understanding the play (see Kesim):  

"Ohio" is the answer of an American children's riddle which goes "what is high in the middle
and round at the ends or high in the middle and nothing at the ends". The answer to both
versions is "Ohio". This gives the central theme of Beckett' s play: "two voids or "nothings"-birth and death- and between the high of life, the double inhalation and exhalation of breath that sandwich life" (Ben-Zvi, 175)

Yet, I always think it's best for people to experience and decide such things on their own so here is the playlet, in its entirety (approximately 10 minutes), performed by the amazing Jeremy Irons:   Ohio Impromptu