Beckett began to write the short play Footfalls in Berlin on 2 March 1975, a little less than a week before the opening night of his now famous production of Warten auf Godot at the Schiller-Theater. The first manuscript draft consists of only two and a half pages. This includes most of the opening dialogue between the old mother and her daughter (who was called Mary in the first draft), together with an early version of the mother's monologue, which is very different from that printed in the published text. By autumn the Royal Court Theatre's plans for a Beckett seventieth birthday season for the coming April and May in London were well advanced. These plans included an evening of “shorts,” for which That Time was already written. With this in mind, Beckett returned to work on his earlier draft of a play written especially with the actress Billie Whitelaw in mind. On 1 October he added a “sequel” (called then an appendix) to what he had already written, recast the mother's speech later that month, and then worked almost continuously on the play in Paris until early November, when he felt sufficiently satisfied to announce that it was completed, although it was to be modified later in several minor respects in the course of the three productions Beckett has directed.