The KOAN Unit presents Beckett5, a quintet of darkly humorous, seldom-seen short plays by Samuel Beckett opening January 21 at the Odyssey Theatre.

The evening’s centerpiece is Krapp’s Last Tape. Beckett’s theatrical poem, one of his most personal works, is infused with his history, emotion and an abiding sense of irony as he captures the weight of regret for missed opportunity and lost love. Elderly and ailing, Krapp sits at his desk and prepares to listen to audiotape diaries he made thirty years earlier.

Considered by critics to be one of the playwright’s most “perfect” plays (Beckett agonized over each individual line until they exactly matched his creative vision), Come and Go is described as a "dramaticule" on its title page and contains only 121 words.

Footfalls features the character of May, wrapped in tatters and pacing back and forth “like a metronome” on a strip of bare landing outside her dying mother’s room. Act Without Words II is a short mime play. A and B, asleep in their sleeping bags, are goaded into their respective lives by an unseen force. Although they never meet, they carry each other through life. In Catastrophe, a director and his assistant prepare an aged man for a public spectacle for a political purpose. One of Beckett’s only politically-themed works, and perhaps his most optimistic, it was written in 1982 and dedicated to then-imprisoned Czech reformer and playwright, Václav Havel.

Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett, widely recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century is best known for Waiting for Godot and other such successful full-length plays as Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape, and Happy Days. Beckett’s works capture the pathos and ironies of modern life, yet still maintain his faith in man’s capacity for compassion and survival no matter how absurd his environment may have become.

Runs Jan. 21-Mar. 5, Fri., Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m., also Thurs., Feb. 16 and Wed., Feb. 22, both at 8 p.m. Tix $25- $34; $30. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West LA, 90025. For tix and info, call (310) 477-2055 or go to OdysseyTheatre.com.