Deathwatch

Deathwatch, Jean Genet's earliest, shortest and most formally straightforward play, was first performed in Paris in 1949. It retains an intense power and makes an excellent introduction to his later dramas - The Maids, The Balcony, The Blacks, The Screens. The French text of Deathwatch, published by Gallimard, was extensively altered by Genet during rehearsal; and Bernard Frechtman's translation is of the final 'performance' version, which supersedes the original published text. Three convicts share a cramped prison cell. There is no question as to which of them is the dominant dog in the pack: Green Eyes (Yeux-Verts) has brutally murdered a woman and is to be executed. Lefranc and the younger novice-like Maurice are inside for less grave crimes. But both of them covet Green Eyes' attention, baiting each other in the process, a duel that drives inexorably toward violence.