Endgame (play)
Encyclopedia
Endgame, by Samuel Beckett
, is a one-act play with four characters, written in a style associated with the Theatre of the Absurd
. It was originally written in French (entitled Fin de partie); as was his custom, Beckett himself translated it into English. The play was first performed in a French-language production at the Royal Court Theatre
in London, opening on 3 April 1957. It is commonly considered, along with such works as Waiting for Godot
, to be among Beckett's most important works.
game, when there are very few pieces left, and the outcome is obvious (the French title applies to games besides chess and Beckett lamented the fact that there was no precise English equivalent); Beckett himself was an avid chess player.
It has also been suggested that Hamm relates to "ham actor" and Ham, son of Noah
, while Clov is a truncated version of "clown
," as well as suggesting cloven hoof (of the devil) and glove (a distant echo of hand and glove, perhaps). Nagg suggests nagging and the German nagen (to gnaw), while Nell recalls Dickens' Little Nell
. Equally Hamm could be short for Hammer and Clov be "clove", hammer and nail representing one aspect of their relationship. In this light, Nagg and Nell, taken together, may suggest the German Nagel (nail); vague references in the text to Hamm's neighbor, Mother Pegg, are also relevant. Further, in the Paris Review
article "Exorcising Beckett", the author writes that Beckett stated the names to be as follows: Hamm for Hammer, Clov for clou (the French for nail), Nagg for nagel (the German for nail), and Nell because of its resemblance to the English word nail.
Ruby Cohn
, in her book Back to Beckett, writes that "Beckett's favorite line in the play is Hamm's deduction from Clov's observation that Nagg is crying: Then he's living." But in Berlin he felt that the most important sentence is Nell's: "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness." and he directed his play to show the fun of unhappiness.
The implication in the play is that the characters live in an unchanging, static state. Each day contains the actions and reactions of the day before, until each event takes on an almost ritual
istic quality. Repetition (in language and circumstance) is often viewed as a major theme in Endgame (and other Beckett productions), as it articulates the human condition, as we repeat our mistakes and habits. It is made clear, through the text, that the characters have a past (most notably through Nagg and Nell who conjure up memories of tandem rides in the Ardennes). However, there is no indication that they may have a future. Even the death of Nell, which occurs towards the end of the play, is greeted with a lack of surprise. The isolated setting, the diseased characters, and the constant references to aspects of civilization that no longer exist, have led many to suggest the play is post-nuclear. However, Beckett always denied this.
, London, directed by Roger Blin
, who also played Hamm; Jean Martin
was Clov, Georges Adet was Nagg and Christine Tsingos was Nell. The production later transferred to the Studio des Champs-Elysees, Paris. Other early productions were those at the Cherry Lane Theatre
, New York, 28 January 1958, directed by Alan Schneider
with Lester Rawlins
as Hamm and Alvin Epstein together with Gerald Hiken playing Clov; and at the Royal Court directed by George Divine who also played Hamm, with Jack MacGowran
as Clov.
Beckett himself directed two productions of the play: at the Schiller-Theater Werkstatt, Berlin, 26 September 1967, with Ernst Schröder
as Hamm and Horst Bollmann
as Clov; and at the Riverside Studios
, London, May 1980 with Rick Cluchey as Hamm and Bud Thorpe as Clov.
In 1984, JoAnne Akalaitis
directed the play at the American Repertory Theatre
in Cambridge
, Massachusetts
. The production featured music from Phillip Glass and was set in a derelict subway tunnel. Grove Press
, the owner of Beckett's work, took legal action against the theatre. The issue was settled out of court through the agreement of an insert into the program, part of which was written by Beckett himself:
In 2008 there was a brief revival staged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
that starred John Turturro
as Hamm, Max Casella
as Clov, Alvin Epstein as Nagg and Elaine Stritch
as Nell. Though originally planned to be directed by Sam Mendes
, this did not come to fruition and Andrei Belgrader was instead hired.
The British theatre company Complicite
staged the play in London's West End
with Mark Rylance
as Hamm and Simon McBurney
(who also directed the production) as Clov. The production opened on 2 October 2009 at the Duchess Theatre
. Tim Hatley
designed the set.
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, is a one-act play with four characters, written in a style associated with the Theatre of the Absurd
Theatre of the Absurd
The Theatre of the Absurd is a designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction, written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as to the style of theatre which has evolved from their work...
. It was originally written in French (entitled Fin de partie); as was his custom, Beckett himself translated it into English. The play was first performed in a French-language production at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
in London, opening on 3 April 1957. It is commonly considered, along with such works as Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
, to be among Beckett's most important works.
Characters
- Hamm - unable to stand.
- Clov - servant of Hamm; unable to sit.
- Nagg - Hamm's father; has no legs and lives in a dustbin.
- Nell - Hamm's mother; has no legs and lives in a dustbin next to Nagg's.
Synopsis
The play focuses on Hamm, an aged master who is blind and not able to stand up, and his servant Clov, who cannot sit down. They exist in a location by the sea, although the dialogue suggests that there is nothing left outside—no sea, no sun, no clouds. The two characters, mutually dependent, have been fighting for years and continue to do so as the play progresses. Clov always wants to leave but never seems to be able. Also present are Hamm's legless parents Nagg and Nell, who live in rubbish bins downstage and initially request food or argue inanely.Analysis and interpretation
The English title is taken from the last part of a chessChess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
game, when there are very few pieces left, and the outcome is obvious (the French title applies to games besides chess and Beckett lamented the fact that there was no precise English equivalent); Beckett himself was an avid chess player.
It has also been suggested that Hamm relates to "ham actor" and Ham, son of Noah
Ham, son of Noah
Ham , according to the Table of Nations in the Book of Genesis, was a son of Noah and the father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan.- Hebrew Bible :The story of Ham is related in , King James Version:...
, while Clov is a truncated version of "clown
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
," as well as suggesting cloven hoof (of the devil) and glove (a distant echo of hand and glove, perhaps). Nagg suggests nagging and the German nagen (to gnaw), while Nell recalls Dickens' Little Nell
The Old Curiosity Shop
The Old Curiosity Shop is a novel by Charles Dickens. The plot follows the life of Nell Trent and her grandfather, both residents of The Old Curiosity Shop in London....
. Equally Hamm could be short for Hammer and Clov be "clove", hammer and nail representing one aspect of their relationship. In this light, Nagg and Nell, taken together, may suggest the German Nagel (nail); vague references in the text to Hamm's neighbor, Mother Pegg, are also relevant. Further, in the Paris Review
Paris Review
The Paris Review is a literary quarterly founded in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen and George Plimpton. Plimpton edited the Review from its founding until his death in 2003. In its first five years, The Paris Review published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip Larkin, V. S...
article "Exorcising Beckett", the author writes that Beckett stated the names to be as follows: Hamm for Hammer, Clov for clou (the French for nail), Nagg for nagel (the German for nail), and Nell because of its resemblance to the English word nail.
Ruby Cohn
Ruby Cohn
Ruby Cohn was a theater scholar and a leading authority on playwright Samuel Beckett...
, in her book Back to Beckett, writes that "Beckett's favorite line in the play is Hamm's deduction from Clov's observation that Nagg is crying: Then he's living." But in Berlin he felt that the most important sentence is Nell's: "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness." and he directed his play to show the fun of unhappiness.
The implication in the play is that the characters live in an unchanging, static state. Each day contains the actions and reactions of the day before, until each event takes on an almost ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
istic quality. Repetition (in language and circumstance) is often viewed as a major theme in Endgame (and other Beckett productions), as it articulates the human condition, as we repeat our mistakes and habits. It is made clear, through the text, that the characters have a past (most notably through Nagg and Nell who conjure up memories of tandem rides in the Ardennes). However, there is no indication that they may have a future. Even the death of Nell, which occurs towards the end of the play, is greeted with a lack of surprise. The isolated setting, the diseased characters, and the constant references to aspects of civilization that no longer exist, have led many to suggest the play is post-nuclear. However, Beckett always denied this.
Production history
The play was premiered on 3 April 1957 at the Royal Court TheatreRoyal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
, London, directed by Roger Blin
Roger Blin
Roger Blin was a French actor and director notable for directing the first production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot....
, who also played Hamm; Jean Martin
Jean Martin
Jean Martin was a French actor of stage and screen. Martin served in the French Resistance during World War II and later fought with the French paratroopers in Indochina. Theatrically, he is perhaps best-known for originating two roles in Samuel Beckett's most famous plays: Lucky in Waiting for...
was Clov, Georges Adet was Nagg and Christine Tsingos was Nell. The production later transferred to the Studio des Champs-Elysees, Paris. Other early productions were those at the Cherry Lane Theatre
Cherry Lane Theatre
The Cherry Lane Theatre , located at 38 Commerce Street in the borough of Manhattan, was New York City's oldest, continuously running off-Broadway theater...
, New York, 28 January 1958, directed by Alan Schneider
Alan Schneider
Alan Schneider was an American theatre director and mentor responsible for more than 100 theatre productions. In 1984 he was honored with a Drama Desk Special Award for serving a wide range of playwrights...
with Lester Rawlins
Lester Rawlins
Lester Rawlins was an American stage, screen, and television actor.Born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, Rawlins appeared in off-Broadway productions of Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Winterset, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, and Nightride, for which he won the Drama Desk Award for...
as Hamm and Alvin Epstein together with Gerald Hiken playing Clov; and at the Royal Court directed by George Divine who also played Hamm, with Jack MacGowran
Jack MacGowran
John Joseph "Jack" MacGowran was an Irish character actor, whose last film role was as the alcoholic director Burke Dennings in The Exorcist. He was probably best known for his work with Samuel Beckett.-Stage career:...
as Clov.
Beckett himself directed two productions of the play: at the Schiller-Theater Werkstatt, Berlin, 26 September 1967, with Ernst Schröder
Ernst Schröder (actor)
Ernst Schröder was a popular German theatre, film and TV actor.-Life:Born in Herne, Schröder began his acting career at the nearby Bochum Theatre in 1934, under the legendary director Saladin Schmitt. He worked there until 1936, also working as Assistant Director and Stage Designer...
as Hamm and Horst Bollmann
Horst Bollmann
Horst Bollmann is a German film and television actor.-External links:*...
as Clov; and at the Riverside Studios
Riverside Studios
Riverside Studios is a production studio, theatre and independent cinema on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. It plays host to contemporary and international dramatic and dance performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production.-History:In 1933, the...
, London, May 1980 with Rick Cluchey as Hamm and Bud Thorpe as Clov.
In 1984, JoAnne Akalaitis
JoAnne Akalaitis
JoAnne Akalaitis is an American theatre director and a writer and the winner of five Obie Awards for direction and founder of the critically acclaimed Mabou Mines in New York, from which she resigned after twenty years in June 1990.Akalaitis was pre-med and studied philosophy in college...
directed the play at the American Repertory Theatre
American Repertory Theatre
The American Repertory Theater is a professional not-for-profit theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein, the A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music–theater explorations; to neglected works of the past; and to established classical texts...
in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. The production featured music from Phillip Glass and was set in a derelict subway tunnel. Grove Press
Grove Press
Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1951. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United States. The Atlantic Monthly Press, under the aegis of its...
, the owner of Beckett's work, took legal action against the theatre. The issue was settled out of court through the agreement of an insert into the program, part of which was written by Beckett himself:
Any production of Endgame which ignores my stage directions is completely unacceptable to me. My play requires an empty room and two small windows. The American Repertory Theater production which dismisses my directions is a complete parody of the play as conceived by me. Anybody who cares for the work couldn't fail to be disgusted by this.
In 2008 there was a brief revival staged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
that starred John Turturro
John Turturro
John Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
as Hamm, Max Casella
Max Casella
Max Casella is an American actor. He is known for his roles on the television series The Sopranos, Doogie Howser, M.D., and as the voice of Daxter in the Jak and Daxter video game series.-Life and career:...
as Clov, Alvin Epstein as Nagg and Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
as Nell. Though originally planned to be directed by Sam Mendes
Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...
, this did not come to fruition and Andrei Belgrader was instead hired.
The British theatre company Complicite
Complicite
The British theatre company Complicite was founded in 1983 by Simon McBurney, Annabel Arden, and Marcello Magni. Its original name was Théâtre de Complicité. "The Company's inimitable style of visual and devised theatre [has] an emphasis on strong, corporeal, poetic and surrealist image supporting...
staged the play in London's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
with Mark Rylance
Mark Rylance
Mark Rylance is an English actor, theatre director and playwright.As an actor, Rylance found success on stage and screen. For his work in theatre he has won Olivier and Tony Awards among others, and a BAFTA TV Award...
as Hamm and Simon McBurney
Simon McBurney
Simon Montagu McBurney, OBE is an English actor, writer and director. He is the founder and artistic director of Théâtre de Complicité in England, now called Complicite.-Early life:...
(who also directed the production) as Clov. The production opened on 2 October 2009 at the Duchess Theatre
Duchess Theatre
The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street, near Aldwych.The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest 'proscenium arched' West End theatres. It has 479 seats on two levels....
. Tim Hatley
Tim Hatley
Tim Hatley is a British set and costume designer for theater and film. He is the winner of the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Set Design.Hatley was educated at Bearwood...
designed the set.
Sources
- Adorno, Theodor W. 1961. "Trying to Understand Endgame." The New German Critique 26 (Spring-Summer 1982): 119-150. Rpt. in The Adorno Reader. Ed. Brian O'Connor. London: Blackwell, 2000. 319-352. ISBN 0631210776.
- Cohn, Ruby. 1973. Back to Beckett. Princeton: Princeton UP. ISBN 0691062560.
- McCarthy, Sean. 2009. "Giving Sam a Second Life: Beckett's Plays in the Age of Convergent Media." Texas Studies in Literature and Language.