The future has a curious status in the theater. Like the past, it cannot be represented on stage, but is limited to the field of discourse. The future can be spoken, but not literally pre-figured. Purely textual, lacking any referent, concretized or otherwise, the future appears essentially alien to the theater. For Anne Ubersfeld, "le problème fondamental du temps au théâtre est qu'il se situe par rapport à un icimaintenant ... le théâtre est ce qui par nature nie la présence du passé et du futur. L’écriture théâtrale est une écriture au présent." Yet the future constitutes an important portion of theatrical discourse and is a rich source of dramatic force. In this brief examination of the future, I will limit myself to the works of Jean Racine, although much of what I will say has broader import.