Janusz Pyda OP: Footfalls and That Time are generally considered twin plays. Not because they are particularly similar – they're not – but because they were written one after the other and jointly premiered. Beckett wrote them in 1974– 75, for staging on his 70th birthday in May 1976 at the London Royal Court Theatre, with which he had been closely connected for years.

Two plays were planned for the birthday celebrations: a new production of Endgame with Beckett's favourite actor, Patrick Magee (for whom Krapp's Last Tape was written), as Hamm, and a performance of three one-act plays: Play, which had been staged at the Royal Court in 1964, and the two new plays, That Time and Footfalls, in which the main roles were also played by Beckett's favourite actors. The Listener in That Time was played by Patrick Magee, while May – the protagonist of Footfalls – was played by Billie Whitelaw, an actress Beckett had admired for years and who was generally known as his muse. He had worked with her on the British premiere of Not I. Endgame, Play and That Time were directed Beckett's friend Donald McWhinnie, and Footfalls by Beckett himself.

This seems a suitable moment to broach the topic of Beckett's relationships with his actors. We know that he had his favourites, actors he particularly admired, and it's said that they sometimes inspired him to write new plays. Is this true? Did Beckett – like some composers who wrote with particular musicians in mind – write some of his plays for specific actors?

Antoni Libera: It's a bit complicated. Beckett, although a master of theatre and a great innovator, was not your typical theatre personality: he was shy and reticent, spoke little and in general did not really feel at home in the easy and relaxed atmosphere that characterizes theatrical circles. His approach to the task of instructing his actors was highly pedantic, one is almost tempted to say scientific, and he took it extremely seriously. His language on these occasions was very formal, almost technical. No psychologizing and certainly no philosophizing. Actors tend not to like this approach and they were a little afraid of him. He awed them; they felt unsure of themselves.