Deathwatch (French: Haute Surveillance) is a play written by Jean Genet in 1947, performed for the first time in Paris at the Théâtre des Mathurins in February 1949 under the direction of Jean Marchat.
Maurice has a deep attachment to Green-Eyes, as does Lefranc, but secretly.
Snowball himself is also condemned to death (his presence in the play is only evoked, not actual) and along with Green-Eyes they are considered the kings of the prison.
In fact their sentence traps them in a solitude and an immense unhappiness which lends them a certain dignity.
The film was adapted into a 1965 film directed by Vic Morrow and starring Leonard Nimoy, Paul Mazursky, and Michael Forest, all four of whom had performed in earlier stage versions of the play in the 1950s.