In an interview given the same day he had staged the premiere of Ohio Impromptu at Ohio State University, Alan Schneider remarked, “I think the title is sort of interesting. I believe it is Beckett's first ‘place' name. And I think there's a bit of a joke in it.”1 Does the joke—if there is a joke—refer to the word Ohio or to the word impromptu or to both? As far as the word impromptu is concerned, and to the extent that etymologically it means “on the spot,” there is undoubtedly a joke in the title. As we shall see and as Schneider and others knew, it took Beckett a long time to complete this so-called impromptu. If there is also a joke in the use of the place name, it could only be because the play has nothing to do with the state of Ohio—unless, as some prefer to think, this name is not Beckett's joke but a pleasant gesture toward the organizers of the Beckett symposium at Ohio State University.

I agree that it would be perfectly in keeping with Beckett's sense of generosity to make such a gesture, or with his sense of humor to call this play Impromptu through the ironic use of antiphrasis and Ohio Impromptu just for the fun of it.