Deathwatch
Deathwatch (Haute Surveillance) Author: Jean Genet
First Performance: 1949, Paris
Published: 1949; rev. 1965
First English Translation: 1954
Genre: Drama in 1 act; French prose
Setting: Cell in a French prison, 1940s
Cast: 4m
Three prisoners are confined in the same cell: Green Eyes, the most dominant, a murderer so dangerous that his feet are shackled; Lefranc, who is due to be released in a few days; and Maurice, the youngest, who is jealous of Lefranc's close relationship with Green Eyes. The men discuss Snowball, a magnificent black murderer on death row. Green Eyes, whose illiteracy has forced him to get Lefranc to write his letters, is afraid that Lefranc will now steal his girlfriend. When Green Eyes contemplates the guillotine and is concerned that his girl will find someone...
[The entire page is 330 words long]
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