Elmar Tophoven Books

The aged and bedridden protagonist (Molloy / Moran / Malone) awaits death, telling stories about other personifiations of himself to pass the time.

"Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful?" Estragon's complaint, uttered in the first act of Waiting for Godot, is the playwright's sly joke at the expense of his own play - or rather at the expense of those in the audience who expect theatre always to consist of events progressing in an apparently purposeful and logical manner towards a decisive climax. In those terms, Waiting for Godot - which has been famously described as a play in which "nothing happens, twice"- scarcely seems recognizable as theatre at all. As the great English critic wrote "Waiting for Godot jettisons everything by which we recognize theatre. It arrives at the custom-house, as it were, with no luggage, no passport, and nothing to declare; yet it gets through, as might a pilgrim from Mars."

"During the German advance through Belgium into France in 1940, Captain de Reixach is shot dead by a sniper. Three witnesses, involved with him during his lifetime in different capacities - a distant relative, an orderly and a jockey who had an affair with his wife - remember him and help the reader piece together the realities behind the man and his death"-- Provided by publisher

Samuel Becketts Verse wurden von Elmar Tophoven und Karl Krolow ins Deutsche übersetzt. Beide Autoren ergänzen ihre "Flötentöne" mit Werkstattberichten, in denen sie die Herausforderungen der Übersetzung erläutern und kommentieren.