endgame beckett resource pack

8/10/2019 Endgame BECKETT Resource Pack

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Resource Pack

Complicite

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SAMUELBECKETTISONEOFTHETWENTIETHCENTURYMOST CELEBRATED AND REVERED PLAYWRIGHTS. Asame time he isoneof themostdauntingplaywrights:notoriouslyo

with exact and minute detail; devoted to o en impenetrable in-jokallusions; and fascinated by the bleak, the melancholy and the abs

isguideoffersa range ofapproachesto directingandperformingBe work.Drawnfrom Complicites rehearsals of Endgameinsummer2009,theexercises and ideas are by no means exhaustive but will hopefully possibilities for investigating a text like Endgame.

Good luck!


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Simon McBurney Tim Hatley Paul AndersonGareth Fry Christina Cunningham

Marcello MagniIan RicksonDouglas Rintoul

Simon McBurney Mark Rylance Tom Hickey Miriam Margolyes

DirectorSet DesignLighting DesignSound DesignCostume Design

Associate Directors

Cast in order of appearanceClov HammNagg Nell

by Samuel Beckett

Complicite

CONTENTS

SAMUEL BECKETTa timeline

NOW YOU SEE IT an introduction by Simon McBurney

REHEARSING BECKETTS ENDGAME

TEXTUAL INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS: Leitmotifs, Repetitions and Echoes References and Encoded Meaning Variation in Editions of Endgame

PLAYING: RHYTHMICAL AND PHYSICAL INVESTIGATIONS:Status Rhythm and Musicality Physical Explorations

DESIGNING ENDGAME an interviewwith TimHatley

PERFORMING ENDGAME an interviewwith Tom Hickey

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SAMUEL BECKETT a timeline

1906 Samuel Beckett is born in Foxrock, Dublin1927 Graduates from Trinity College Dublin with a First Class degree in

French and Italian1928 Travels to Paris to be an exchange lecteur at the cole Normale Suprieure1929 Publishes his rst short story: Assumption1930 Publishes the poem Whoroscope. Returns to Trinity College on a two-year

contract as a French lecturer1931 Proust , a collection of essays, is published1934 Publishes his rst novel, More Pricks than Kicks. Moves to London1937 First attempt at a play: Human Wishes. Settles in Paris1938 Publishes Murphy. Begins writing poetry in French1945 Writes Mercier et Camier 1947 First play written in French, Eleutheria, published posthumously. Murphy is

translated into French1951 Molloy in French. Malone meurt 1952 En attendant Godot 1953 LInnommable. Watt in English. First production of Waiting for Godot 1956 Malone Dies. First British publication of Waiting for Godot 1957 Fin de partie, suivi de Acte sans paroles.

First commission for radio: All at Fall (BBC)1958 Endgame translation of Fin de partie. e Unnamable1959 Receives an honorary D.Litt. degree from Trinity College Dublin1961 Comment cest. Happy Days. Beckett and Suzanne Descheveaux-Dumesnil mar

in Folkstone, Kent1964 How it is translation of Comment cest 1965 Imagination morte imaginez. Imagination Dead Imagine1966 Comdie et Actes divers. Assez. Bing 1967 Dun ouvrage abandon. Ttes-mortes. Eh Joe and Other Writings

1969 Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature1970 Premier Amour. Le Dpeupleur 1973 Not I. First Lo e1976 Pour nir encore et autres foirades. All Strange Away. Foirades/Fizzles written in

French and English. Footfalls1978 Pomes, suivi de mirlitonnades1980 Compagnie. Company1981 Mal vu mal dit. Rockaby1989 Stirrings Still. WorstwardHo.SamuelBeckettdiesinParison22December1989.

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NOW YOU SEE IT by Simon McBurney

RightnowIamsittingintherehearsalroomwiththewords.Nothingbutthewords.So precise, so hard to remember. And these words are not even the ones I have tospeak.

He looks upat windowright.He turns andlooks atwindowle . Hegoes out,comes backimmediately with a step-ladder, carries it over and sets it down under window le , getsupon it,drawsbackcurtain.He getsdown,takessix steps (for example)towards windowright, goes back for ladder, carries it over and sets it down under window right, gets upon it, draws back curtain. . .

Ah good.One has the right to choose if there are six steps or more. Or less. Not many lessbecause the next direction is for three steps . . . , the one a er that for one step Andthis is merely a fragment of the action Beckett details for Clov. And Hamm. Nagg and Nell too.

roughoutthe playaction,dynamics,pauseandsilence arechosenas fastidiously asthe words voiced. ey are the text. Just as the dynamics in Schuberts Winterreise,Becketts favourite song cycle, are part of the score. Perhaps score would be moreappropriate than text when speaking of the theatrical architecture Beckett presents you with. I dont know.

In France they call the people who come to the theatre les spectateurs, in Britain andIreland they are the audience, the people who listen. is does not mean the Frenchare not interested in language. On the contrary. It actually says more about theundevelopedvisualsense over here. For Beckett what yousee is as important as whatissaid.Ascarefullyplaced. isdoesnotfeelanymoreofarestrictionthanthewords you are required to speak. Quite the opposite. Its precision is an injection into theartery of the imagination.

Whatyou see is chosen as carefully as what you hear.Both are unusual. at is to say the use of image and the use of word resist an easy interpretation. A direct meaning.ewordsare the sameas wemight recognise ona bus,at home, ina place wemight

inhabit everyday. But they are, crucially, changed. eir meaning is exactly what wemight expect of the everyday, but the way they are used is unexpected. We recognisethem but we do not know what they mean when positioned as they are. We know whatdustbinsare butwearenot familiarwith themas housingfor ourageingparents.

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Sotheyarelikethethingsweseeontheothersideofthestreet,thethingthatcatches your attention and you do not know why. Out of the corner of your eye, you sesomething and it reminds you. Sets off resonances, makes you laugh, moves yrepeats like a tune but resists a more prosaic explanation.

When caught in the web of Becketts language (by this I mean his creation of souand image as well as the words which emerge from the mouths of the characters

there are many pauses. In the rehearsal room, I mean. We pause frequently; we stoallfourofus,Mark, Miriam, TomHickeyandI. EvenTom whois theone actor whois not a virgin to playing Beckett is ummoxed. For us, the other three, it is our rstime. We do not know where to go next. How to approach it again. How to say iHow ANYmeaning,evena musical one, can ndits way into thewaitingsilence. Wesearch. Andin thelanguageitself it seems there is a searchas well. elanguageitselfappears to be looking for something. A home?

When Beckett was asked once by an eminent French critic why, if he hated wordssometimes he claimed he did, why should he want to use them to convey his art, repliedQuevoulezvous monsieur,on ariendautre. (What doyouwant,MonsieurOne has nothing else.)

His language is as rich as any poet, but it is pared down to an essence. I guess a writer who worked for James Joyce, as Beckett did, researching Finnegans Wake forhim,helping,supporting, admiringhis immensereach,wouldlook foranotherrouteSoBeckettstrippedaway. Reduced tonothing.Madethe languagedo everythingwitnothing. Gave it a freedom to mean nothing, yeta muscularity that encompasses allPerhaps? I dont know, as I stutter through the lines again. For a moment, and forreasonI cannotexplain, it ickersintoextraordinarylife. I hopeit willdo sonight a ernight. I cannot be sure. ere is only the trying. Simon McBurney, September 2009



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On rst reading Endgame the play can feel dense and impenetrable. ere are noscenes or acts as such; we are given little information about the characters, theirsituation, thehistorical setting, thepassage of time or theenvironment. Sohowdoesone begin to think about rehearsing a text that appears to offer little information, isambiguous, disconnected, repetitious, chaotic and structureless?

Leitmotifs, Repetitions and Echoes

Beckett rehearsing EndgameinBerlinin1967describedittohiscastasaplayfullof echoesthey all answer each other. ere are many words and phrases that keepcroppingup. WithBecketts statement inmind,canwebeginto uncoverfootholds by which we can navigate our way through the text?

Grab some highlighter pens and have a look through the play bearing in mind thefollowing words, themes and ideas:

END/DEATH/SLEEP: Highlight and look at all the references to death, endingsandsleep. What do these references tell usaboutthe world thecharacterslive in,thecharacters themselves and their desires?

NATURE/LIFE: e world of the play is a world where nature seems to have ceasedto exist. Highlight all the references to nature in the play. Nature functions inopposition todeath.Whyis theplayfullof references to lifeand procreationwhen theoutsideis death?Again,whatcan these references tell us about thecharacters, theirdesires, and the world they live in?

REHEARSING BECKETTS ENDGAME

TEXTUAL INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS

Becketts plays canbe interpretedonmany levelsinsteadof merelyexploring

a surface, a play like Endgame has become a sha driven deep down into thecore of being; that is why it existson a multitudeof levels, revealing newonesas it is more closely studied.Martin Esslin, e eatre of the Absurd.



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LEAVING: Clov repeats the phrase Ill leave you many times throughout the play in a number of different forms. Mark these in the text and any references to leaving. What does this tell us about the character of Clov? Can we sense a continuousstrengthening of his will to leave? Can we use these to chart a journey for Clov throughout the play?

ILLNESS:Hamm repeats thequestionIs itnot timefor mypain-killer?seven times

intheplay.MarktheseinthetextandanyreferencestoHammsillness.Whatdoesthistell us about thecharacter ofHamm?How canthishelp us to structurea journey forthe character of Hamm?

PLAY:epieceis full ofplayas ametaphor. Look for referencesto play, chess,acting,the stageandstorytelling. Whatdoesthistellus aboutthe possibleplayingstyle ofthe piece?O encharactersreferdirectly to theaudience,so is Endgamenaturalistic?Isthereafourthwall?Is Endgamesupposedtoberealordoesitembodybothrealityandplay?

Hamms story provides the play with its most cohesive thread, weaving in and out of theplay.Workyourway throughtheplaymakingnoteofwhereHamms storyoccurs

and how it develops each time. What is the purpose of the story? Why must Hammtell the story? What will happen to Hamm if the story is concluded? Does anyone want the story to be concluded?

UNSEENCHARACTERS:Lookatthetextandhighlightreferencestootherpeople who do not appear on stage. Why does Beckett bring the doctor, Mother Pegg, thecrawlingman,the child and theboy outsidethe windowintothe play? Whoare the people thatHammcould havehelped or saved? Whatdoes this tell us aboutHamm? Who were/are all the unseen characters and what could be their relationship to theother charactersin theplay?BeckettfamouslysaidthathedidntknowifClovwas theboyin Hamms story. Whathappens to theplayand theaudiences experience of the play if the character of Clov is the boy in the story? What if he is the man who camecrawling on his belly, or if he has no relationship to the boy at all?

ROUTINE: Endgame highlights notions of routine, circularity and in nities, allexploring the idea of a life being made of discreet, o en banal or absurd moments.Mark references to repetition and routine in the play. Oppositionally have a look attheplay and markpossiblenew events. Isthisday like anyotherday?Whatis newforthecharacters?Howdoes thedeath ofNellpushthe characters and theaudience intonew territory?



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References and Encoded Meaning

Beckett may have embedded meaning into the play through his naming of thecharacters: Hammmayreferto a hammer thatdrives inthe nails(theFrenchfornailis clou, the German is Nagel and the English nail Clo , Nag and Nell ) and MotherPegg maybe a fourthnail.Hamm may also refer to thehamactor as well as holding abiblicalallusiontoNoahssonandthesurvivalofthegreat ood.Othertextsarealso

directly referred to in theplay:Oneby Oneandmoment upon momentconnectto the paradoxes of the pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno; Mene, Mene? is a biblicalreference taken from Daniel 5:26; My kingdom for a nightman! uses Richard IIIsappeal in Shakespeares play; Why did you engender me? may allude to the lastspeechof Marlowes Faustus; and Our revelsnow areended is a potent li ing fromShakespeares e Tempest (giving a hint towards Hamm as a kind of toppledProspero).Howdoesaknowledgeofthesereferenceshelpusbuildupabiggerpictureof the characters, the play and Becketts intentions?

What other recurring motifs can you nd?

How does this type of investigation begin to offer a way of understanding the textand facilitate rehearsals?

We maynowhavea greater ideaof thecharactersand thenarrative threadsin the play.Take the character of Hamm or Clov (or both) and now write a list looking at thefollowing points:

1. What facts do we know about the characters? For example: Clov cant remember whenhe camehere.Hammhas somethingdripping inhis headandwantsa painkiller.

2. What do the characters say about themselves? For example: Clov says he lovesorder and calls himself a dog. Hamm says he hesitates to end.

3. What do the characters say about other people? For example: Hamm calls Clov acreature and Nell a busybody. Clov says that Mother Pegg died of darkness.

What does this list tell us about the charactersand about the play? Howdoes thislist help usto thinkabout developing a character?



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Variation in Editions of Endgame

You may notice that Complicites production of Endgame differs at times from yourtext. Beforeworkingon any play its important to ndout if there is only oneeditionof theplay. ere arenumerouseditionsof Shakespeares playsandevencontemporary texts cano enexistin differentversions. Textso en change inperformanceorevolveover a number of different productions. Published versions of Complicites own productions differ radically from the last performance of the piece because the show haschanged.It is important to remember thata play only existsfullyon thestage. Atext is only a blueprint and intention or a record of something that will or has been performed.Looking atall thevariouseditions of a textwecanbegin to understandthegenesis of a piece and its evolution. We o en think of Becketts work as nite, but of all Becketts plays Endgame was the one that he struggled with writing the most. Ithad a difficult birth and, perhaps as a consequence, was his favourite work.

I did nish another [play], but dont like it. It has turned out athree-legged giraffe, to mention only the architectonics, and leavesme in doubt whether to take a leg off or add one on. Samuel Beckett writing to his iend, the American director Alan Schneider, in April 1956

Here Beckett is referring to the rst dra of Endgame, which was originally a two-acter. By June the same year he had reduced it to one act. is version was written inFrenchand rstperformed in1957.Beckett later translated hisowntext into English, which was performed in 1958.He laterdirected his own productions of Endgamein

Berlin in 1968 and in London in 1980. For these productions he made adjustmentto his text, which exist in a revised edition in e eatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett: Endgame v. 2.

All these versions differ from each other in subtle ways. In the rst dra the seconactopened with Nells dustbin gone from thestage. We also hear more explicitlythathe parents accident occurred the day a er their wedding night and that they werecrushed up to their groins. Clov dresses as a woman, alternately speaking in his o voiceandafalsettoandHammis convincedthatthereis reallya womanthere, talkingto her as if she were his wife. In his notes, Avant Fin de Partie, Beckett also gives asetting for the rst dra of the play: the region of Picardy [France], and more precisely in Boulannaisnear Wissant. He goes on to describe the house asdwelling erected on a cliff and the protagonists as obviously survivors of a F World War battle and progressively destroyed in the autumn of 1914, the spring o1918, and the following autumn, under mysterious circumstances.

ereare signi cantdifferences between theEnglish translationandthe nalFrenchtext,too. Mostsigni cantly,in theEnglish translation,BeckettcutClovsdescriptionof the boy seen out of the window as being seated with his back against a standistone looking at his naval. Other changes in the revised edition of the English teinclude different stage directions where Clov li s Hamms handkerchief at thebeginning ofthe play, givesthe dogs arse toHamm tofondle insteadof thedogs heaand pretends to look out of and open the window at the end of the play. What doethis tell us about the process of writing a piece of theatre? Why was Becketts texuid and alive? Why do youthinkBeckettmadechanges? Whatdoesthe cutting of

lengthy descriptions and elucidations tell us about Beckett as a writer and his destoallowmeaningtoexistonanumberoflevels?Howdothesedifferencesinthetextenableustounderstandtheplayinmoredetailandhowcanthisgreaterunderstandinghelp or hinder our own staging of the play?

Nowthat wehave pulledtogether a wealth of textualanalysisand haveuncovereda number of questions to be explored in rehearsal, how do we actually begin torehearse theplay?



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PLAYING:STATUS,RHYTHMICAL & PHYSICAL INVESTIGATIONS

Status:

A knowledge of how status operates can help us to understand and clearly de nerelationshipson stageand speci callythe relationshipswithin Endgame. Tobeginto

think about or to play with the complex status relationships that exist in Endgamethecompanyused thefollowing exercisesto develop a statusvocabulary or scale they could collectively refer to.

Status is made up of external and internal status: respectively how the world sees usand how we see ourselves. Our status as human beings can change according to thesituation we nd ourselves in and who we nd ourselves with. Status is at the core of all drama. Firstly lets explore in a purely technical way what we mean by externalstatus. Let us look at what high status and low status is. Imagine a numerical scaleofstatususingthenumbers1to20,with20beingthehigheststatusand1thelowest.

Who in our world has a high status? Who has a low status? Walk around the room with high status. Notice how you hold your head, your spine, how your clothes feel,howyour feet move,how youbreathe, whether youmovequicklyor slowly, evenly, or with jerks. What is your level of tension? Now walk with low status. Again noticehowyouhold your head, your spine,how your clothes feel, howyourfeet move, how you breathe, whether you move quickly or slowly, evenly, or with jerks. What is yourlevel of tension? What are the differences?

Now, in a group, set up some chairs for an audience. Place some more chairs and atableinfrontoftheaudience. isisourplayingspace,ourstageforanimprovisation.Sit the group down on the chairs. Take a hat and make 20 pieces of paper numberedfrom 1 to 20 (making a clear distinction between 6 and 9). Fold the pieces of paperand puttheminto thehat. Askfor 4 or 5 volunteers.Each volunteer takes a numberfrom thehat. eylook at their number without revealingit to theothervolunteersor thegroup. When everyone hastaken a number they then return their numbers tothehat.Ask thevolunteersto pickup any props,coats etc. they feel they maywant toinclude in the improvisation. Send all of the volunteers out of the room (they mustnotreveal their numbersto eachotherwhilst outside: there shouldbe nodiscussion).evolunteers shouldthenenter theroomoneby oneand start to improvisea scene

(it could be an emergency business meeting where an important issue needs to beresolved or any setting where a clear status hierarchy exists). e object of the


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estatusrelationship betweenHamm andClov iscomplex andis in constant ux throughout thepiece. isstatus vocabulary gives usa shorthand tostart exploring thepossibilitiesthat exist betweenClov andHammand toconstruct some kind of journey for the characters.

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improvisation is to communicate very clearly to each other and the audience whattheir given level of status is. We will try to guess this number at the end of the scene. When we feel thatwe haveseen enough, end the scene and ask the audience to guessthe individual status of each volunteer. What did we see? What made us think one person was of higher or lower status than the others? What did we see physically? Whowas relaxed,anxious,stressed or carefree?Whowas stillandwhomoved arounda lot? Where were they positioned in the room and in relationship to the others?

Howdo alltheseaspectscontribute tocommunicatingstatus? Nowask thevolunteersto reveal their numbers and what they experienced. Repeat the exercise with new volunteers until everyone has had a go.

Now lets explore internalstatus. Using thesamepiecesof paperas before, askfourorvevolunteersto take a number as before. isis theirexternal status:howthe world

sees them. A er returning their numbers to the hat ask the volunteers to take a new number. is is their internal status: how we see ourselves. As before, ask the volunteers to leave the room and enter into the improvisation. e object of theexerciseis tocommunicatesuccessfullytheirexternaland internalstatus. Howwouldahighexternalandaverylowinternalstatusmanifestitself?Whodoweknowinthe world aroundus who has a con icting internaland externalstatus? How can we tell?Again end the scene and ask the audience to guess the individual status of each volunteer. What did we see? What made us think one person was externally orinternally higher or lower than the others? What do we see physically? How does acon ict manifest itself? Did someone appear to be relaxed on the outside but held alotof tension internally? Orwas it theother way round? Didsomeonehavea similarexternaland internal status?Nowask thevolunteersto reveal their numbersand whattheyexperienced.Repeatthe exercisewith newvolunteersuntileveryonehas hada go.e combining of internal and external status exposes a very human contradiction.

We are all made up of how we are perceived by the world around us and how we perceive ourselves. ese are the foundationblocks for forminga characteron stage.How can we use this scale in rehearsal?

Now take the opening dialogue between Clov and Hamm from Get me ready, Im

going to bed to Outside of here its death. In pairs, have a look at the internal andexternal status of Hamm and Clov. Hamm clearly has the higher external statusbecause he is the master, he orders Clov around. But Clov also appears to have aninnerstrength.Whatis his internalstatus?Remember Clovhas power becausehecanmove and see. Play around with some combinations, choose combinations that youthinkaretotallywrongfor thecharactersas well as those that youthinkare right, actthese out. When you have played around with a number of combinations, get eachcouple to perform one version. Ask the audience to try and guess the combinations. What do we see and feel? Ask the actors to reveal the combinations and talk about what they experienced.


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Rhythm and Musicality

Having mined the text for possible meanings and structures, and having looked atstatus, lets momentarily throw all this work away and look at the text in a purely musical way. Imagine that Becketts textsare like a piece ofmusicand,likea musicianlooking at a musical score for the rst time, we have to look at the composition in atechnicalway. Beckett is extremelyprecise inhiscompositionof image,physicaltext

and language. e punctuation of the text and inclusion of the pauses is very calculated: everything has a purpose. We have to nd out what that purpose is, forexample what the journey through a pause may be. If we trust what Beckett has written, we may get very near to what he intended for performance.

e beginning of rehearsals for this production began (unusually for Complicite)seated around a table. In the rst week the company focused on purely speaking the words, giving speci c weight to the commas, full stops, pauses, ellipses, exclamationmarks, italics and em dashes etc.

A full stop (.) is chie y used to mark the end of a sentence expressing a statement. Itcan also o en de ne the end of a complete thought. Take a look at this section of Clovs text.

Clov: I say to myself sometimes, Clov, you must learn to suffer better than that if you want them to weary of punishing you one day. I say to myselfsometimes,Clov, you must be better than that if you want them to let you goone day. But Ifeel too old, and too far, to form new habits. Good, itll never end, Ill never go.( Pause.) en one day, suddenly, it ends, it changes, I dont understand, it dies, or itsme, I dont understand that either. I ask the words that remain sleeping, waking,morning, evening. ey have nothing to say. ( Pause.) I open the door of the cell andgo. I am so bowed I only see my feet, if I open my eyes, and between my legs a littletrail ofblackdust.I sayto myself that theearthis extinguished,though I never sawitlit. ( Pause.) Its easy going. ( Pause.) When I fall Ill weep for happiness. ( Pause).

Readthissectionaloudrunningthesentencestogether,ignoringthepausesandfullstops.

Now read the text giving weight to the full stops (well deal with the pauses in a bit).Ifyoure ndingthisdifficult,speakeachsentenceasifitistheonlythingthatyouaregoing to say: as if the next sentence does not exist. Hide the coming sentence if youlike. umpyour hand or stampyour footon thelastword of thesentence. You may nd that the full stop o en gives weight to the last word in the sentence. When youhave tasted each sentence and evaluated its weight in its own right, speak the wholetext. How is this different from your rst speaking of the text?


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Now havea look atthe commas(,).A commais usedto indicatea separation of ideasorofelements within thestructureofa sentence. eycan helpan actor navigate their way through complicated ideas and clauses existing within a text. Read through thetext allowing the commas to guide you.

Clovstextisfullofemdashes().Anemdashisusedtoindicateabreakinthoughtor sentence structure, to introduce a phrase added for emphasis, de nition, or

explanation, or toseparate twoclauses.Anem dashcanindicate aninterruption, eitherby someone else or the character himself or herself. When the character interruptsthemselves theinterruptionis o en causedbythe speedof anewthoughtinterrupting thepreviousone,or a fast elucidation of thepreviousthought.Nowreadthis sectionof text bearing this in mind. What does this reveal about Clovs state of mind?

Now look at the pauses. What is a pause? Pauses in Becketts text are as important asa spoken word, sentence, thought or physical movement. In fact a pause is o en a piece ofunspoken text,anunvoicedthought or thesearchfora thought,it is never justa moment of inactivity. Becketts pauses are rich and can o en help us to understand what is happeningwithin a scene. Read the text again giving weight to the full stops,commas and now the pauses. What do we notice? Can the pauses help to mark theemotional undertow existing beneath Clovs words?

Elsewhere in Endgame you may nd ellipses (). An ellipsis is a mark or series of marks that usually indicates an intentional omission of a word or a phrase from theoriginal text. O en in Becketts text an ellipsis can be used to indicate a hiatus inspeech, an un nished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence.

HAMM:AndyetIhesitate,Ihesitateto...toend.Yes,thereitis,itstimeitendedand yet I hesitate to ( He yawns.) to end.

Try speaking thesentenceabove,givingfullweight to theellipsis. WhyhasBeckettputan ellipsis here? What word should be in its place? Why cant Hamm say the wordend in place of the ellipsis?

Now look at the rst exchange of text between Hamm and Clov again, paying particular attention to the full stops, commas, pauses, ellipses and em dashes. Alsohave a look at the exclamation marks. e text is full of them. An exclamation mark (!) is used in writing to indicate intensity of emotion, or loudness. In pairs, take ashort section of the exchange and work through it, heightening your exploration of


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Its hard for me if I hold on to the way I normally make sense of things. With most Shakespeare plays you cant sayexactlywhattheymean, but the characters willde nitelyhavea pastand a future and bemo ing towards anobjective.Usually I try to nd the cause and the need for everything. But with this its more liberating if I just play, like a child really, without any of those responsibilities that my training and my experience have taught me. Mark Rylance


themusicinthetext.Makesuretherearenogapsbetweenonepersonspeakingandtheother responding unlessBecketthas speci ed it.Runit throughagain and againuntil the text starts to feel familiar. Can you see how carefully structured Beckettstext is?Doesexploringthisstructurein purelytechnical terms allow usto getcloserto the meaning, feeling or sense of the words or the relationship between the twocharacters? Can you feel the to and fro between the two characters?

In rehearsals for Endgame the company would explore large sections of the text inthisway, repeatingthe sectionagain andagainlikea musicianor orchestra rehearsing for a concert. What do you think the bene ts of rehearsing this kind of text in this wayare? Interestingly the Frenchword for rehearse isrpter , whichliterallymeansto repeat.

Now lets look at an exercise created and used in rehearsals to highlight this idea of Becketts text being a rhythmical score between two characters. In pairs, face oneanotheronchairs. Onepersonstarts byvoicinga rhythmicalphrase, withoutwords,at the other person. Immediately their partner responds to this phrase by repeating it, adapting it or by making a totally new phrase that in some way is linkedrhythmically to the initial phrase. e exercise continues in this fashion with one person responding to the other in turn until we are freely improvising with sound(think about the way jazz musicians improvise with each other). ink about thequality of pauses, full stops, em dashes, ellipses and commas that we have already explored. Incorporate these into the rhythmical call and response. A form of communication and play starts to exist, it may feel childlike, animalistic or eventribal. Now allow this non-verbal rhythmical exploration to underpin the rstsection ofdialoguebetween Clov andHamm, with oneperson playing HammandtheotherplayingClov.CreatethesamekindofplaybutusingBeckettswords. Dont worry so much about the meaning of the words, look for the music.


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Sight

echaractersin Becketts plays o enhavephysical disabilities.In Endgamethemotif of physical deterioration of the body is very present. All of the characters have somedegreeofvisual impairment: Hammcant see,Naggand Nellcanhardly seeandClovseyes are bad. It was important in rehearsals to engage the actors imaginations withthese various degrees of visual impairment.

Get into pairs. One person closes their eyes and offers their arm to their seeing partner. e seeing partner leads the other around the room, gently at rst. Once atrusting relationship is fully established, explore how fast you can lead your partner,and on what levels you can lead them (closer to the oor, higher up, up stairs orthrough corridors). Swap over. What is the sensation of being led or leading? Whathappens to our body, arms, legs and facial expressions when we are being led?

Stay in pairs, again one person closes their eyes. e seeing person (this time nottouching their partner) hums or las a phrase of a song to their partner (it may be a well-known song). Sing it a few times close to them. enstart to guide yourpartneraround the room, using only the song to direct them: leave your partner, take a positionanywhere in the roomandsingyourphrase.Yourpartnermust move towardsthe direction of your voice. Play with distance, proximity, height, movement and pauses between the phrases of the song. Swap over. What did you experience thistime? What happened to thebody of thepersonbeingled? What feelingswereevokedin the leader? Sympathy, compassion, or power?

Nowlineeveryoneupononesideoftheroom.Placeabeanbag,scarforsmallbagonthe far side of the room directly in front of the group. Get one person to walkto thobject with their eyes open. ey should stop before the object, bend down and pickitup. Getthem toreplacetheobject and return tothe line. is timerepeat the wholesequencebut getting thepersonto doit with theireyesclosed. Leteveryonehave ago

How did you do? What did you notice about the difference of the body and therhythm of the movement? Was there tension or anxiety? How did it feel?

Now lets returnto ourgrid of nine squares. Onone side of thesquare,line everyoneupalongoneedge.Ontheoppositesideplaceonepersoninthemiddle.Askthemtoclosetheireyes.Whenthespaceissettledandsilent,between1and5membersofthgroupin unisonwilltakea largestep towards theperson with their eyesclosed.Holdthere for a moment until the person with their eyes closed has made a guess at homany people have stepped towards them? In silence return to the line.

Repeatthisthreeorfourtimes.Leteveryonehaveago.Howmanydidtheygetright What do we notice about the physical quality of the person with their eyes close What shapes does their body make, particularly their face? Do they reposition thehead? What is the quality of listening? Is it intensi ed? How did it feel to do it?


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All these investigations (textual, rhythmical and physical) indicate a handful of ways in which the company approached Becketts Endgame. Most exercises were proposed and o en invented during the process of rehearsal. ere was no preconceived or xed way of working. All work manifested itself as a directresponse tothe needs of the text andthe actor. Ultimately thesevery different yetcomplementary ways of lookingat Becketts textweredesignedto givethe actor areservoir of ideas that would support and inform their playing of the text in performance.

Douglas Rintoul, Associate Director, September 2009


Come and... Go

One of the most signi cant dynamics of Endgame is the physical and emotionaltugging that occurs between Hamm and Clov. eir relationship can be seen as acodependency. Look at the text, remembering that Clov is the only person who canmove.Howmanytimesdoes Clovattempt toleave? Isthere agreater frequencyin theattempts as we get further into the play? Under what circumstances does Clov leave

to go into the kitchen? Does he ever leave of his own volition? Clearly we can see acomingandgoingbetweenClovandHamm,withHammo enrestrictingClovfromleaving. Lets exaggerate this sense of physical spatial tension that exists between thetwo characters.

Take a heavychair and place it inthe middleof thenine-squaregrid.Put someone inthe chair blindfolded. Give that person a piece of rope (up to six metres long) andnow place someone else anywhere in the grid and hand him or her the other end of the string.

epersonseated inthe middle has totry andcontrol the other person in the grid with therope. ey are the master. e other person wants to try and leave the grid. Within thisexercise there must be a strong sense of play,remember, both Hamm and Clov enjoy thegame. Now repeat the exercise but this timeusing the opening dialogue between Hammand Clov. Usethegame ofthe rope tounderpinthe dynamics inherent in the text. What

happens in the pauses? Is the rope taught or loose? During the exercise, when is therope most taut? Repeat the exercise, this time abandoning the rope but trying torememberthe sensation ofthe rope betweenthe twoplayers. What doesthisexercisetell usabouttherelationship betweentwopeoplein spaceand thekind ofthreadthatcan exist? How can we use this language in performance and with Becketts text?

ese physical explorations are intended to give a fuller realisation of the text. How do you think that this kind of work can release and underpin a text like Becketts?How does this physical language help to communicate the play more clearly to anaudience?


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DESIGNING ENDGAME an interviewwithTim Hatley

Beckettbecame known forhis sparseuseof setdesign,an attitudethat had a powerfulimpactat thetimeof theoriginal productionsbecauseit wasat odds with thebroadly naturalistic set designs popular in mainstream theatre. e idea of the black-boxtheatre,of whichBeckettwas anearlyproponent, andof strippeddown,symbolicsetdesigns, is common today, so making a strong impression can be more difficult for a

designer. Here Tim Hatley, set designer for Endgame, talks about his work on the production.

Can you describe for me the process of arriving at this design? I started from the text. A er reading the text, I began spending a lot of time inrehearsals with thescript andwiththe actors. I workedwithSimonovera number of weeks to develop the design. My usual process is working with a model box in my studio and going to meetings before rehearsals begin. However, thats not the way Complicite works. In this case, there was no commitment to having a design ready early. With Complicite, thedesign is developedin tandemwiththe rehearsals so,forthisproduction,wewereabletodelaybuildtimetothemiddleoftherehearsalperiod.

SoI attended rehearsals, worked,andsketched as theprocesscontinued.I would sharetheseexampleswith Simonduringtea breaks, before, a erand inbetweenrehearsals.edesignchanged.At onepoint,we had more elaboratedesigns. Atanother, wehad

simplerdesigns.Atthecoreofitalwayswasthetext.Inthetext,youaretoldwhatyouneed. You dont need very much. Its not a showy design.

I believe that myjob,as a designer, is todisappearintothe background.Its notaboutbeing clever. Its a supporting role; a design is generally something that supports the piece. I thinkif you leavethe theatrethinking, ose sets wereamazing, thats not the point. What I look for is total theatre, where everything is in balance. A designershould be another member of the company.

Did you think much about Beckett as the master of minimalism? Did you feel restricted creatively by this aesthetic? I think its quite liberating, actually. I think theres a lot of liberation in restriction. When you have been given instructions, you can be very creative within those parameters. When its very blank, I nd it very difficult to focus. I personally sometimes get misled when there is a totally empty canvas. And so I think therestrictions are very useful. e minimalism is the point of the play and to ignore it would be to ignore the play.

What in uenced this particular design? Did you do any research into past designs of previous productions? I didnt. I usedto assistJocelynHerbert, whodesignedthe originalproduction attheRoyal Court. I saw photos of her production but Ive never seen the play performlive. Generally, Im not all that interested in past designs of plays.

For this production,we foundground inlooking atthe spaceofthe theatre itself. Weasked,Howcanwe make this spacespecial?Wemade anearlydecisionthatit shouresemble an empty theatre and the interesting thing about the text is that it needsnothingand yet it still needs something. I looked at the angles of the walls in ththeatre. I took a lead from the side walls, which angle towards the centre, and usthem to focus in and give strength to the central armchair.

e theatre makes you feel like you are going down into the earth. We drew on thisand concentrated on height and scale, clearing the grid completely. I imagined ththerewas daylight only beyondthetop ofthe proscenium,out ofview. Its theperfectheatre for this show.

Would the design transform in a different space? Ithinkwewouldusethesameapproachbutde nitelyadaptitforanewspace.Ithink its important that a design ts in a space. A good design has to t well into a roome great thing about this production is that we are here for a length of time, so wecan do things we couldnt do otherwise. ats the beauty of it.



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PERFORMING ENDGAME an interviewwith Tom Hickey

Tom Hickey, the actor who played Nagg, was the only member of the company whohad previously playedin a Beckett production. We asked himwhether working withComplicitehad madeany differenceto his performance, andto his understandingof the play.

What would you say characterises Simons approach to directing Endgame and Beckett in general? With the type of perception thatSimon has, I think, he is able to illuminatethe play ina particularwayby winkingout newperformancechoicesand discoveries.Whatmakes his perception different is that these choices are never the most obvious oreasiest. However, they are always fascinating.

Simons emphasis on the physical is clear. e idea of the body remembering is very present in this rehearsal process. ere are always many physical exercises, whichbubble away in Simons imagination.

Have these sorts of exercises been present in past theatre processes you have experienced? Not to the same extent. I worked for many years with the Irish playwright TomMacIntyre. A lot of his work is surreal. In the 80s, in Dublin, we did his plays and it was a very collaborative journey between the author, director and me. ere weresomesimilaritiesin that process. Buttherewerealso differences. We worked withtwoguys who had just come back from the Marcel Marceau school in Paris. ey did physicalexercisesandwarmups, but thoseweredifferentin manyways. Simonhas hisown particular genius.

You performed Nagg in a production of Endgame a couple of years ago. How does thisdiffer om your previous experience of being directed in Endgame? Yes,Idid. erewasaBeckettfestivalattheGate eatreinIrelandandtheydidalotof his plays. We did a short run for a week there and then at Barbican. I think thebasic differenceis that Simon is continuallyunlockingmoreand more from thetext.Heplays with it. e previous production wasveryformal incomparison. is oneisessentiallymore playful. Nevertheless, its stillvery disciplined. Ourworkis notdrawing backfrom Becketts disciplinewith thetext.We adhere to it,whileremainingplayful.

Has your portrayal of Nagg changed om three years ago? What have you disco ered about the character this time around? Its different. How is it different? I think because there is a larger landscape to play with. Simon has unlocked more for Nagg this time around.

e whole basis for the people in this play is that its non-naturalistic. e text andcharacters are split up in a surreal way. erefore, one can come up with all sorts ofacets for a single character. For Nagg, its as if the fragmentation of past experieis activating the present.

Simonnever stops makingnew choicesif he feels that theyaremore appropriate andexpressive. Hesees theproductionas anongoing process. I may be doingthings nothat I might not be doing next week. eres no it. Its a process. Its about revealingthe play Endgame.

Can you describe a particular moment in rehearsal where something was illuminated? emomentwhere Naggand Nellrecollecttheirboatrideon Lake Como.We began

tomimethemovementof the boat whileremaining inourbins. eboatbusinesswas very much a realisation. I would say in relation to Nagg and Nell, but particularNagg, that the amount of physical variation that I am doing in the bin is far morethan I would have expected I would be doing.

Is this physicality very challenging? Its very challenging. But one knows that its also a mark of Simons way of worki

Are there new things you have learned about Becketts text om this particular production? All over the place. ere are always more insights about the play. As I said to Simonthere should be laughs in itdark laughter that you hear at the edge of a volcanoe humour is never far away with Beckett. Its in our bones, you know, that miseryis laced with laughter. ats what keeps his characters going. I cant go on. I will gon. Beckett has such a bleak vision of the world but he never, in his work, says yshould give up. Try. Try again. Fail. Fail Better.

Do you think that speaks to this particular rehearsal process?

Oh for sure this speaks to this process.Calla Videt interviewed Tim Hatley and Tom Hickey, September 2009



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Endgame Resource Pack produced by Complicite

Writers: Douglas Rintoul and Calla VidetComplicite Education Coordinator: Poppy Keeling Design: Russell Warren-FisherRehearsal photos: Sarah Ainslie

Complicites education programme informs and re ects its artistic programme,ndingconnections and ideas that contribute to thecreation ofnew work, aswellas

complementingcurrentproductions. Atthecore ofComplicites educationworkareits workshops, which offer an insight into the companys working processes. Large-scale lecture demonstrations, post-show talks, intimate workshops and residencieshave taken place all over the world with people of varying interests, abilities andbackgrounds, from professionals and students, to young people within and withoutthe theatre community.

Compliciteassociate performers teach a range ofworkshopson physicalpreparationof thebody, theneutral mask,ensemble, clown, improvisationandtext-basedwork. Workshops may relate to a speci c production or explore particular techniques orstyles of work.

If you would like to nd out more about booking a workshop, presentation or talk, please contact [email protected]

IfyouwouldliketojoinComplicitesmailinglistandreceivedetailsofperformancesand workshops, please send your name, telephone number and email address [email protected]

Complicite

14 Anglers Lane, London NW5 3DGT. +44 (0) 20 7485 7700 / F. +44 (0) 20 7485 7701 / [email protected] www.complicite.org

Complicite 2009


endgame beckett resource pack

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