be revealed to her. In addition to the continued buzzing in her skull there is now a light of varying intensity tormenting her; the two seem related. The title comes from the character's repeated denial that the events she describes or alludes to happened to her. Mouth Beckett had always intended that Billie Whitelaw, whom he had worked with on Play, give the definitive premiere performance of Not I. "But in the end, more out of friendship than because of any delays in London, he allowed Alan Schneider the opportunity to present it first" in America featuring Jessica Tandy. Tandy did fly to France to discuss the text with Beckett. However, Whitelaw’s subsequent performances benefited from extensive coaching from Beckett. "I knew that woman in Ireland," Beckett said, "I knew who she was — not 'she' specifically, one single woman, but there were so many of those old crones, stumbling down the lanes, in the ditches, besides the hedgerows." That said, Beckett did not demand that the part be spoken with an accent, his one concession to Whitelaw when tutoring her. Schneider put ten questions to Beckett, indicative of his bafflement. Beckett responded: "I no more know where she is or why thus than she does. All I know is in the text. 'She' is purely a stage entity, part of a stage image and purveyor of a stage text. The rest is Ibsen." Objective meaning does seem to have been of secondary consideration in the writing style. As Beckett indicated to Tandy he hoped that the piece would "work on the nerves of the audience, not its intellect."<ref>Beckett to Jessica Tandy. Quoted in Brater, E., 'The I in Beckett's Not I, Twentieth Century Literature, 20, No 3, July 1974, p 200</ref> Beckett told Tandy to consider the mouth "an organ of emission, without intellect" and "during rehearsals [with Whitelaw] he would say, 'Too much colour, too much colour', which she correctly interpreted as 'For God’s sake, don’t act'." The visual image of the mouth was, according to Beckett in a letter postmarked 30 April 1974, suggested by Caravaggio's The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist in Valletta Cathedral. Auditor The published stage directions also call for a character of indeterminate sex referred to as 'the Auditor' (generally played by a male) who wears a black robe and can be dimly seen stage left. When Beckett came to be involved