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ENDGAME TEACHER INFO PACKET 2016-17 SEASON
g o r d o n ed el s t e i n artistic director
H
JOSHUA BORENS T EIN managing director
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ENDGAME SAMUEL BECKETT
BY DIRECTED BY GORDON EDELSTEIN JANUARY 5 - FEBRUARY 5, 2017 on the claire tow stage in the c. newton schenck II theatre
Lwt
Teacher Information Packet Compiled and Written by: madelyn ardito eliza orleans barbara hentschel christine scarfuto
Director of Education Education Programs Manager Resident Teaching Artist
Literary Manager & Dramaturg
TEACHER INFORMATION PACKET LAYOUT BY CLAIRE ZOGHB
L O N G W H A R F T H E AT R E G R A T E F U L LY A C K N O W L E D G E S THE GENEROSITY O F O U R E D U C AT I O N S U P P O R T E R S ANNA FITCH ARDENGHI TRUST ELIZABETH CARSE FOUNDATION Frederick A. Deluca Foundation THE GEORGE A. & GRACE L. LONG FOUNDATION SEYMOUR L. LUSTMAN MEMORIAL FUND Seedlings Foundation THEATRE FORWARD wells fargo foundation The Werth Family Foundation FOUNDING SUPPORTER OF LONG WHARF THEATRE’S VIDEO STUDY GUIDE AND SUPPORTER OF THE EDUCATORS’ LABORATORY
GORDON EDELSTEIN Artistic Director
JOSHUA BORENSTEIN MANAGING Director
PRESENTS
ENDGAME BY SAMUEL BECKETT DIRECTED BY GORDON EDELSTEIN
THE CAST HAMM BRIAN DENNEHY CLOV REG E. CATHEY NAGG JOE GRIFASI NELL LYNN COHEN
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States ° Member of United Scenic Artists, USA-829 of the IATSE This Theatre operates under an agreement between the League Of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
contents
ABOUT THE PLAY 8 Synopsis
9 Setting
10
Characters
THE WORLD OF THE PLAY 12
About Samuel Beckett
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Historical Context
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Theater of the Absurd and Existentialism
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About the Production
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Glossary
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Themes
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS
Look for this symbol to find discussion and writing prompts, discussion questions and classroom activities!
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Theater of the Absurd
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Other Works by Samuel Beckett
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Reading List
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READ a Review—then WRITE your own!
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For the First-Time Theatergoer
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Moments & Minutes Information
ABOUT THE
PLAY
SYNOPSIS What is the play about?
Endgame takes place in a shelter after an end of the world/ apocalyptic disaster. Hamm (the master, the Ham actor, the hammer), his servant Clov (the servant, the clown, the nail) his father Nagg, and his mother Nell are trapped together in a room of Hamm’s house. Hamm is selfish and domineering. Clov hates Hamm and wants to leave but never refuses Hamm’s orders. The major dramatic tension of the play is “Will Clov have the force to leave Hamm?” (Esslin, pg 63 Theatre of the Absurd) “When actors asked Beckett questions about his plays, his response tended to emphasize the reality of character and situation. When he directed Endgame in Berlin in 1967, he told the actors to play it as if the fourth wall of realistic drama stood between them and the audience. Clov’s one wish, he told them, is to get back to the kitchen, while Hamm’s is to detain him. That simple conflict, he said, was the center of the play. …the characters in Endgame are human-painfully human. Beckett himself was prone to depression and despair, but those who knew him attest to his dogged spirit and determination to go on. “Hamm,” he told the actors in Berlin, “says no to nothingness.” – In Such A Place, Such A World by Michael Paller
In the Classroom HAMM: We’re not beginning…to…to…mean something? CLOV: Mean something? You and I mean something? DISCUSSION: What does it all mean? After reading or seeing the play, what picture does Endgame present of the world? Considering current events (our political system, the conflict in Syria, etc.) can you put Endgame in a contemporary context? How do we as a society find meaning in a chaotic world? Where do we find hope?
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ABOUT THE PLAY
John Turturo and Max Casella in Brooklyn Academy of Music’s production of Endgame, 2008
SET TI N G Where does the play take place? Bare interior. Grey light. Left and right back, high up, two small windows, curtains drawn. Front right, a door. Hanging near door, its face to the fall, a picture. Front left, touching each other, covered with an old sheet, two ashbins. Center, in an armchair on castors, covered with an old sheet, Hamm. Motionless by the door, his eyes fixed on Hamm, Clov.
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characters
In the Classroom BRIAN DENNEHY AS Hamm
REG E. CATHEY AS Clov
An old, blind man who is confined to his chair
Hamm’s servant, who is unable to ever sit down
JOE GRIFASI AS Nagg
LYNN COHEN AS Nell
An old man who wears a nightcap and emerges from a trash can
An old woman who wears a lace cap and emerges from a trash can
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WHAT’S IN A NAME? What do the names of these characters tell us about who they are? Before you even see the play, what can you interpret about each character?
THE
world of T H E
PLAY
ABOUT SAMUEL BECKETT
I had little talent for happiness.
S
amuel Barclay Beckett
– Samuel Beckett
was born on Good Friday, April 13, 1906, in Dublin, Ireland. In his youth he
would periodically experience severe depression keeping him in bed until mid-day. This experience would later influence his writing. In 1928, Samuel Beckett found a welcome home in Paris where he met and became a devoted student of author James Joyce. In 1937, Beckett was stabbed by a pimp after refusing his solicitations. After meeting with his attacker, he dropped the charges, partly to avoid the publicity. While recovering in the hospital, he met Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnuil, a piano student in Paris. The two would become life-long companions and eventually marry.
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THE WORLD OF THE PLAY
A cartoon of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett Mercier et Camier, two books of short stories, and a book of criticism.
During World War II, Samuel Beckett’s Irish citizenship allowed him to remain in Paris as a citizen of a neutral country. He fought in the resistance movement until 1942 when members of his group were arrested by the Gestapo. He and Suzanne fled to the unoccupied zone until the end of the war.
Waiting for Godot achieved quick success at the small Theatre de Babylone, putting Beckett in the international spotlight. The play ran for 400 performances and enjoyed critical praise. Beckett’s plays are not written along traditional lines with conventional plot and time and place references. Instead, he focuses on essential elements of the human condition in dark humorous ways. This style of writing has been called “Theater of the Absurd” by Martin Esslin, referring to poet Albert Camus’ concept of “the absurd.” The
After the war, Samuel Beckett was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery during his time in the French resistance. He settled in Paris and began his most prolific period as a writer. In five years, he wrote Eleutheria, Waiting for Godot, Endgame, the novels Malloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, and
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bec k ett
continued
plays focus on human despair and the will to survive in a hopeless world that offers no help in understanding. The 1960s were a period of change for Samuel Beckett. He found great success with his plays across the world. Invitations came to attend rehearsals and performances which led to a career as a theater director. In 1961, he secretly married Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnuil who took care of his business affairs. A commission from the BBC in 1956 led to offers to write for radio and cinema through the 1960s. Samuel Beckett continued to write throughout the 1970s and 80s mostly in a small house outside Paris. There he could give total dedication to his art evading publicity. In 1969, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, though he declined accepting it personally to avoid making a speech at the ceremonies. By the late 1980s, Samuel Beckett was Suzanne Dechevauxin failing health and had moved to a small nursing home. His life was Dumesnuil and confined to a small room where he would receive visitors and write. He Samuel Beckett died on December 22, 1989, of respiratory problems just months after the death of his wife.
Sam told me (and I know he’s told other people) that he remembers being in his mother’s womb at a dinner party, where, under the table, he could remember the voices talking. And when I asked him once, “What motivates you to write?” he said, “The only obligation I feel is towards that enclosed, poor embryo…that is the most terrible situation you can imagine, because you know you’re in distress, but you don’t know that there is anything outside this distress or any possibility of getting out of that distress.” And, if you remember, in Endgame, the question of the little boy that is being seen, Sam had an absolutely mystical obligation towards that poor, suffering, enclosed being that doesn’t know there is a way out.” – Martin Esslin
http://www.biography.com/people/samuel-beckett-9204239#synopsis
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THE WORLD OF THE PLAY
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HISTORICAL CONTEXT Imagine a world without institutions. No governments. No school or universities. No access to any information. No banks. Money no longer has any worth. There are no shops, because no one has anything to sell. Law and order are virtually non-existent because there is no police force and no judiciary. Men with weapons roam the streets taking what they want. Women of all classes and ages prostitute themselves for food and protection. – Keith Lowe, Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II
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THE WORLD OF THE PLAY
A couple walks through the heavily bombed ruins of St. Lo, France, 1944
A
French Resistance Poster
< After the bombing of Normandy, 1944
fter the Nazi German occupation of France in 1940, Beckett joined the French Resistance, in which he worked as a courier. On several occasions, he was nearly caught by the Gestapo. In August 1942, his unit was betrayed and he and his lover, Suzanne, fled south on foot to the safety of the small village of Roussillon. There he continued to assist the Resistance by storing armaments in the back yard of his home. During the two years that Beckett stayed in Roussillon, he indirectly helped the Maquis sabotage the German army in the Vaucluse mountains, though he rarely spoke about his wartime work in later life. Beckett was awarded the Croix de guerre and the Médaille de la Résistance by the French government for his efforts in fighting the German occupation; to the end of his life, however, Beckett would refer to his work with the French Resistance as “boy scout stuff.” While in hiding in Roussillon, he continued to write.
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theatre of the absurd and
e x istentialism Clov: Why this farce, day after day? Hamm: Routine. One never knows.
WHAT IS THEATRE OF THE ASBURD? Martin Esslin coined the term in his 1960 essay “Theatre of the Absurd.” He related these plays based on a broad theme of the Absurd, similar to the way Albert Camus uses the term in his 1942 essay, The Myth of Sisyphus. The Absurd in these plays takes the form of man’s reaction to a world apparently without meaning (consider the atrocities of WWII). This style of writing was first popularized by the 1952 Samuel Beckett play, Waiting for Godot. Though the term is applied to a wide range of plays,
some characteristics coincide in many of the plays: broad comedy, often similar to Vaudeville, mixed with horrific or tragic images; characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive; either a parody or dismissal of realism and the concept of the “well made play”. These plays were shaped by the political turmoil, scientific breakthrough, and social upheaval going on in the world around the playwrights during these times.
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Martin Esslin, Author of Theatre of the Absurd
THE WORLD OF THE PLAY
What is an ABSURD play anyway? Let’s break it down! out the window. Language does not clarify communication. Absurd playwriting devalues language. For example, Endgame presents us with a world where characters communicate/ speak horribly with one another. Furthermore we observe a circular and repetitive routine of dialogue. For example: Hamm presents a question, Clov counters with a counter argument, Hamm agrees with the counter-thus ending the discussion.
PLOT: Absurd plays REBEL against traditional theatre! The plot in these plays are either nonexistent or of little significance. The plays don’t discuss an idea or argument but rather they simply - starkly present the argument. The big questions of the play are left to the spectator or audience to decide. The spectator uses their own experiences of life and ideologies to make sense of the world. The plays of Theatre of the Absurd present non-linear plot structures that do not necessarily move in a straight line. Logic is replaced with the irrational such as repetition of dialogue, nonsense, a minimalist setting, characters that have difficulty communicating, characters that are more two dimensional than three. In general, absurd plays do not tell a story but rather present a picture. Conventional/traditional plays, by contrast, tell a linear story (beginning, middle, end) and they aim to set out a conflict for the main character and have it solved.
‘ Hamm: Have you not had enough? Clov: Yes! (pause) Of what? Hamm: Of this…this…thing. Clov: I always had. (pause) Not you? Hamm: Then there’s no reason for it to change. Clov: It may end. (pause) All life long the same questions, the same answers.’ CHARACTERS: In Absurd plays, characters are more often symbolic and representational. You don’t learn about their backstory or emotional problems.
DIALOGUE: In Absurd plays, logical language that would traditionally help tell the story goes
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In the Classroom ACTIVITY: On the surface, the Two-dimensional Three-dimensional characters in Endgame can seem Perfect Flawed two-dimensional. Examine this Fits neatly in story Has own story chart. Consider how the characters No history Has a unique past of Endgame present as characters Predictable Irrational in the script. Examine each Logical Quirky character (Hamm, Clov, Nagg, Nell) Often non-social Often social and defend a case for whether they seem two dimensional or threeArchetype Individual dimensional to you. Source: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/characters/2d-
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theatre of the absurd and e x istentialism
continued
WHAT IS EXISTENTIALISM? Existentialism IS the philosophical background to the types of plots, events, characters, themes and actions of many absurdist plays. Albert Camus’s essay The Myth of Sisyphus helps to introduce this concept. In Sisyphus, Camus shows us this figure of Greek mythology relentlessly pushing a boulder up a hill, only to see it roll down again. It is a metaphor for what existentialists believe is man’s futile existence in a world devoid of any God, and as each new day passes, man comes closer to his ultimate surety of death. If man does have purpose in his life, he must make this purpose himself and control his own destiny through his choices and actions, which may bring some degree of hope.
Sisyphus
In the Classroom WATCH: This Absurd Universe: Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kINdkdNOKHo DISCUSSION: After watching the video, consider the following questions: What is your burden or “rock” in life? How do you make sense of your existence? According to Camus, we may not be able to control the circumstances we are in (in life) but if we can examine our circumstance and reflect on it, we can choose how to interpret it. And we can interpret it to our advantage!
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WRITE ABOUT IT: Examine the circumstances of your life. What is in your control and what is not? Upon reflection, how can you interpret your life to have the most meaning and purpose? Furthermore: what actions can you take to control your fate?
THE WORLD OF THE PLAY
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION Why this play now? If you felt like your own death was imminent, would you be at peace with how you had lived your life? Would you fight the odds to survive? Each character in Endgame must wrestle with their personal longings and the feeling that the future is completely, painfully outside of their control. What is the director’s concept for this production? “There are two ways to approach this play,” says director Gordon Edelstein. “The more traditional take is to have the play end the same way it begins. This puts emphasis on the circular nature of the play and highlights the routines we cling to as we search for meaning in our lives (the human condition). Another approach to the play and how I Gordon Edelstein personally am imagining Endgame is that today is the worst day these characters have ever had. I imagine the world of Endgame at the time of an environmental disaster. The water line has dropped and debris has washed up on either side of Hamm’s shelter (on the stage). The four characters, Hamm, Clov, Nagg and Nell, are the four survivors of this disaster. I want to examine the peak of each character’s struggle and the urgency with which they attempt to overcome.” Why this casting? Brian Dennehy, who plays Hamm in Endgame, was previously in Long Wharf Theatre’s production of Krapp’s Last Tape, another play by Samuel Beckett. Edelstein asserts, “Brian Dennehy is the best actor in America to play the role of Hamm. He is one of our great actors of the American Theatre most notably for his work in the iconic roles of O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Miller’s A Death of a Salesman.” Reg E. Cathey, who audiences will recognize as Freddie from Netflix’s House of Cards, plays Clov. “I want to explore his growing despair of his situation and how he builds the courage to try and leave,” says Edlestein. “Casting Reg, a black man, in this role was my intention from the beginning and it changes the play in a way that I think is meaningful for our time. Clov is desperately looking to break free from Hamm. He wants to break out of his shackles. Hamm wants to die but is terrified to. He is an aging, blind, dying patriarch—a declining King. I hope that the struggles between black and white relationships—while hard to see and deal with in this play—will resonate in our audience.”
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glossary The Ardennes region
infant human skull. It is a soft, membranous gap between cranial bones.
Anenometer – a tool used for measuring the speed of the wind. Ardennes – a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges formed by the geological features of the Ardennes mountain range and the Moselle and Meuse River basins. The area stretches to Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, and France.
Fortnight – a period of two weeks.
Anenometer
Gaff – 1) a stick with a hook, or a barbed spear, for landing large fish. 2) a spar to which the head of a fore-and-aft sail is bent.
Chronicle – 1) to record a series of events. 2) a factual, written account of events. Crablouse – a reference to lice; the tiny insects that feed on human blood.
Inanities – The quality of being inane. Vapid, pointless, lacking substance, or shallow. Laying doggo – staying hidden, to secrete oneself.
Endgame – the stage of a chess game after major reduction of forces, or the final stage of some action or process.
Lumbago – lower back pain.
Engender – to cause or give rise to. Farce – a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations. Flora! Pomona! Ceres! (pg39) – Three Roman goddesses. Flora, the goddess of flowers and springtime. Pomona, the goddess of fruit trees, gardens, and orchards. Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, crops, and fertility. Meerschaum – a soft white claylike material; a tobacco pipe with the bowl made from this.
Fontanelle – an anatomical feature of an
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THE WORLD OF THE PLAY
“My kingdom for a nightman!” – Hamm quotes Shakespeare’s King Lear, but it is also a chess-pun. (“My kingdom for a knightman!”) Beckett is alluding to a “knight-takes-knight” move. Pauper – a very poor person. Pomeranian – a breed of dog. Progenitor – 1) a person or thing from which a person, animal, or plant is descended or originates; an ancestor or parent. 2) a person who originates an artistic, political, or intellectual movement.
Pomeranian
Reckoning – the time when your actions are judged as good or bad and you are rewarded or punished. Trousers – a word for pants, most commonly used in Britain.
Sedan – a commune in the Ardennes region of France.
Turkish Delight – a gelatinous sweet confection traditionally made of syrup and corn flour, dusted with icing sugar.
Shanks – 1) a person’s leg, especially the part from the knee to the ankle. 2) the shaft or stem of a tool or implement, in particular.
Vesta – a short wooden or wax match. Soliloquy – a speech made by a person, alone, and spoken to the self. Example: the “to be or not to be” speech in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Whelp – 1) a young animal, especially a dog. 2) to be born.
In the Classroom
DISCUSSION: Were any of these words new or familiar to you? What do they tell you about Endgame and what it might be about?
ACTIVITY: Write a scene, monologue, or poem using as many of the words from the glossary as you can.
BACKGROUND: Turkish delight
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THEMES Caring for the Sick Samuel Beckett had to care for both of his dying parents. Michale Paller writes, “When his beloved father, Bill, suffered a heart attack in 1933, Beckett lovingly cared for him, bathed and shaved him…His relationship with his mother, Mae, was more complicated. They could hardly be together without simmering in mutual resentful silence or bursting into vehement recrimination. Yet when he was stabbed in a Parisian street in 1938, Mae rushed ot his hospital bedside and sat vigil for many days…When she was dying in 1950, it was Beckett’s turn to sit by the bedside, although whether out of love or duty, resentment or relief, or some unknowable combination, it’s hard to tell.” In Endgame, Clov cares for his master, Hamm, who is blind and unable to leave his chair. The script also suggests that Nagg and Nell, who each spend the entirety of the play in trash cans, are Hamm’s parents. The Apocalypse
Endgame was written in 1958 during the Cold War (1945-1991) when the threat of nuclear annihilation was in everyone’s awareness. Hamm refers to the room they are living in as a “shelter,” possibly a bomb shelter. The supplies are dwindling, and they cannot go out to get more. He refers to the population outside as dying. They are also waiting to die inside the shelter and are in various stages of bodily decay. It appears to be the end of the world, as in a nuclear holocaust because nothing living stirs outside the window when Clov looks out. Nature has forgotten them.
Death and Leaving No matter how many people play the game of life the only outcome one can be sure of is death. Everybody dies. The characters in Endgame allude to this finality continually throughout the play. Endgame shows humans battling with the awareness of their own insignificance and approaching death with funny actions and dialogue. Clov opens Endgame by repeatedly looking out the window and announcing “it must be nearly finished”. End, zero, finished, almost done, enough, death, dead are words that are used repeatedly in the dialogue. The constant tension in Endgame is whether Clov will leave Hamm or not. He threatens to and does sometimes, but he is never able to make a clean break. Likewise, Hamm continually tells Clov to leave him alone but pulls him back before an exit is possible. Both wonder out loud why they stay with each other, and both men give reasons in long monologues for why they put up with each other: their empty lives are filled only with unyielding pain, and none of life’s typical consolations help them—there is no cure for being on earth, as Hamm often says. Interdependency
Having someone else around, even someone you hate, helps soften the pain of feeling alone in the world. Hamm and Clov’s unwillingness to face this pain alone somehow makes the pain greater, and their complementary, dominant (Hamm)-submissive (Clov) pairing highlights their numbing dependency. By contrast, Nagg and Nell have a “happy” marriage in part because Nell, at least, is willing to accept that they cannot rely on each other (she calls their futile kissing routine a “farce”) and exist in their separate ashbins.
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THE WORLD OF THE PLAY
Chess
In chess, the endgame is the stage of the game when few pieces are left on the board. Samuel Beckett had a lifelong interest in chess and was a keen player. He was taught to play by his elder brother, Frank, and by his uncle, Howard. There are a score of chess books in the library of Beckett’s old flat in Paris. Poet John Montague, a close friend of [Beckett’s] in the 1950s and 60s, says that Beckett, who was ill at ease with people he didn’t know well, would sit in a cafe moving the objects on the table around, “playing a fantasy game of chess”, as Montague puts it. It is also tempting to see Beckett treating the stage like a chessboard. Endgame in particular is, as the title makes clear, infused with chess. “Me – to play,” announces Hamm, the king on a battered throne, at the outset. In chess, the king is the key piece around which the game revolves, yet also the most restricted and impotent, able to move only a square at a time, just like Hamm, who is shuffled round the stage by Clov, the pawn who glimpses freedom. In chess, the feeble pawn, if it can progress to the eighth rank, becomes an all-conquering queen, the true monarch of the game. Who really holds power—Hamm or Clov? Commentators have suggested that Beckett was intrigued by chess because of the way it combined the free play of imagination with a rigid set of rules, presenting what the editors of the Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett call a “paradox of freedom and restriction”. That is a very Beckettian notion: the idea that we are simultaneously free and unfree, capable of beauty yet doomed. Chess, especially in the endgame when the board’s opening symmetry has been wrecked and the courtiers eliminated, represents life reduced to essentials—to a struggle to survive. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/aug/29/samuel-beckett-obsession-chess-influence
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supplemental
materials
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SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS
theatre of the absurd
A production of Beckett’s play, Not I
Martin Esslin, Introduction to “Penguin Plays - Absurd Drama” (Penguin, 1965) (EXCERPTS) A well-made play is expected to present characters that are well-observed and convincingly motivated. A well-made play is expected to entertain by the ding-dong of witty and logically built-up dialogue. A well-made play is expected to have a beginning, a middle, and a neatly tied-up ending. The basis of the well-made play is the implicit assumption that the world does make sense, that reality is solid and secure, all outlines clear, all ends apparent. The plays that we have classed under the label of the Theatre of the Absurd, on the other hand, express a sense of shock at the absence, the loss of any such clear and well-defined systems of beliefs or values. http://www.samuel-beckett.net/AbsurdEsslin.html
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theatre of the absurd
continued
In the Classroom
activity: Theater of the Absurd is influenced by nonsense poetry â&#x20AC;&#x201C; verse that uses whimsy, humor, and rhyme and does not make logical sense.
Alice in Wonderland, for instance, is considered by some a piece of nonsense literature. Dr. Seuss wrote almost exclusively in nonsense poetry. Take a look at the examples on this page, and try to write your own nonsense poem!
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SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS
Actress Fiona Shaw in Happy Days
Happy Days centers on a woman named Winnie, who we find buried under a mound of sand at the top of the play. As time goes by, Winnie becomes more and more entrenched in the sand, so much that by the end of the play, we can only see her head.
J. Kyle Manzay and Wendell Pierce in Waiting for Godot
OTHER WORKS BY BECKETT Waiting for Godot is arguably Beckett’s most well known play. It tells the story of two friends, Estragon and Vladimir, who are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a man named Godot. The play takes place on a largely empty stage, in an outdoor, desert-like space, and there is one lone tree.
Play focuses on one man and two women, each of whom sit onstage in a large, grey urn. They speak in very fast, fragmented sentences straight out to the audience, never acknowledging each other over the course of the play. There are several “choral” sections where the three actors speak at the same time, but their words are completely unintelligible. The audience soon learns that the characters are a man, his wife, and his mistress.
Juliet Stevenson in Play as part of the Beckett on Film series
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OTHER WORKS BY BECKETT
continued
Michelle Forbes in Footfalls
Footfalls centers on a woman, May, who walks nine steps back and forth within one meter throughout the entire play. She is dressed in tattered clothes. She speaks to her mother, a character who we hear but never see throughout the action. The play has a loose, unstructured plot. Many scholars and critics interpret the voice of the mother as being completely in Mayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head.
In the Classroom ACTIVITY: Break into small groups, and look closely at the photos from Samuel Beckettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s other plays. What do you observe about the characters, just based on their facial expression, pose, and design elements of the play? What do you imagine that they are thinking or feeling?
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SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS
READING LIST • The Theatre of the Absurd by Martin Esslin • The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus • Conversations with Eugene Ionesco by Claude Bonnefoy • Waiting for Godot and Endgame by Samuel Beckett • The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco • General: the plays of Adamov, Albee, Beckett, Genet, Ionesco, Pinter • New York Times article: Eugene Ionesco in Defense of the Absurd http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/15/theater/the-arts-festival-eugene-ionesco-in-defense-of-the-absurd.html?scp=2&sq=eugene+ionesco&st=nyt
MOVIES • City Lights • Waiting for Guffman • Beckett on Film
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read a review – then write your own ! January 29, 1958 | Written by BROOKS ATKINSON
Beckett’s ‘Endgame’ to give a coherent account of what--if anything-happens. Almost nothing happens in the sense of action.
Thanks largely to the bitterness of the direction and the acting, Samuel Beckett’s second play turns out to be quite impressive. Impressive in the macabre intensity of the mood, that is.
But Mr. Beckett, destitute of hope, is flinging a shroud across earth’s last revels. He is painting a portrait of desolation, loveless-ness, boredom, ruthlessness, sorrow, nothingness. Looking out of the window through a telescope, Clove reports what he sees: “Zero, zero and zero.” Mr. Beckett is preparing us for oblivion.
For “Endgame,” which opened at the Cherry Lane last evening, deals in tones and perversities of expression. Like “Waiting for Godot,” it never comes precisely to the point. But Mr. Beckett is wise in choosing the form of the myth in which to sound his tocsin on the condition of human society. Since his theme is unearthly, the unearthly form becomes it.
Whether or not his theme is acceptable or rational, his director, Alan Schneider, has had the grace to take him at his own evaluation and stage his play seriously. Although there is not much physical movement in it, it has continuous tension and constant pressure. The words are the sounds of fluctuations in temper--from scorn and despair to sardonic humor, from hopelessness to hatred.
The stage represents a gloomy brick cavern with spectral light, two grotesque windows that can be reached only by a ladder, scabrous walls, rubble, decay. There are four characters--an irascible, blind tycoon in a hard hat and rags, sitting in a battered pulpit chair; his shuffling, groaning slave who drags himself around the stage on futile errands; an elderly man and an elderly woman who live in two ashcans. Once or twice during the course of Mr. Beckett’s harangue of disgust they poke their death-like faces above the rims of the ashcans and act as a grisly chorus to the main theme.
In “Endgame,” as in “Waiting for Godot,” the central character is a tyrant. Here he is called Hamm. Lester Rawlins acts the part with astonishing variety and vigor. Seated on his silly throne, he gives the whole play a driving harshness that is baleful and mad, and that stings the nerves of the audience. In view of the elusiveness of the dialogue, the fierce clarity of the characterization he draws is a superb stroke of theatre.
Apparently, the place is somewhere between life and death, and the time is just short of the night of the earth’s last whimper. Don’t expect this column
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work and study that have prepared Miss Westman and Mr. Kelly to practice art in an ashcan!
The part of Clov, the slave, is well played by Alvin Epstein, who is another versatile actor. As he trudges around the stage, dragging a ladder, dropping the telescope, blundering this way and that, Mr. Epstein creates another intelligible image-indecisive, drawn between duty and revulsion, between obedience and contempt. It is excellent work.
What Mr. Beckett has to say is contrary and nihilistic. But he is a writer. He can create a mood by using words as incantations. Although the dialogue is often baffling, there is no doubt about the total impression. We are through, he says. Nature has forgotten us. The jig is up. Under Mr. Schneider’s bustling and perceptive direction, inside David Hays’ stage design of doom, Mr. Beckett is getting an intelligent hearing. This is how he feels. The actors have given him the privilege of saying what he feels with no equivocating. No one on the stage is asking him to be reasonable.
“Comedy” may be too cheerful a word to describe the episodes in the ashcans. They are part of Mr. Beckett’s grim joke on the futility of life. But it is a pleasant thing to see Nydia Westman poke her bonneted head out of one ashcan and listen to her quavering voice, and it is also pleasant to see P. J. Kelly’s pointed features appear out of the refuse and hear his Irish inflections. Think of the years of
In the Classroom ACTIVITY: Now that you’ve read Brooks Atkinson’s review of Endgame’s premiere in New York, try writing your own! After you see the production at Long Wharf, consider all of the elements required to make the show happen – sets, lights, costumes, sound, makeup, actors, staging, and more. What did the play set out to do, and was it successful?
https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/03/reviews/beckett-endgame.html
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SOURCES http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/world-war-ii-history/pictures/world-war-ii-damage-and-destruction/ after-the-battle-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endgame_(play) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Absurd http://www.thedramateacher.com/the-challenges-of-teaching-absurdism/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_endgame Beckett, Samuel. Endgame. New York: Grove Press, 1958. Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd. New York: Vintage Books, 2004. Print.
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FOR THE FIRST-TIME THEATREGOER the major consideration to keep in mind is that your actions can be distracting not only to the rest of the audience, but to the actors on stage as well. Behavior that is acceptable in other public settings, like movie theatres, ballgames, or concerts, is out of place when attending the theatre. The following tips should help you get acquainted with some DOs and DON’Ts for first-time theatregoers.
DO arrive early. Make considerations for traffic, parking, waiting in line, having your ticket taken, and finding your seat. If you need to pick up your tickets from the box office, it is a good idea to arrive at least twenty minutes early. Generally, you can take your seat when “the house is open,” about half an hour before the show begins. Late seating is always distracting and usually not allowed until intermission or a transition between scenes, if it is allowed at all. Follow the old actors’ mantra: To be EARLY is to be ON TIME. To be ON TIME is to be LATE. To be LATE is UNFORGIVABLE.
DO turn off your cell phone. Phones and any other noise-making devices should be switched off before you even enter the theatre: you won’t be allowed to use them anyway. Texting during a performance is also rude. The intermission is a good time to use your phone, but remember to turn it off again before the next act begins.
DON’T leave your garbage in the theatre. Food and drinks are usually not permitted in the theatre at all, with the exception of bottled water. If it is allowed, be sure to throw out your trash in a garbage can or recycling bin in the lobby; don’t leave it for the house manager or ushers at the end of a show.
DO watch your step. Aisles can be narrow, so please be considerate when finding your seat. Avoid getting up during the performance whenever possible, since it can be very distracting. You can use the restroom before the show and during intermission. Also, be careful not to cross in front of the stage, as it will break the illusion of the show. Don’t step on or over seats, and never walk on the stage itself.
DON’T talk during the performance. Chatting is extremely rude to the actors and the audience around you. Everyone is trying to pay attention to the play and those nearby will be able to hear, so please be quiet and considerate.
DO get into it! Actors feed off of the audience, just as the audience feeds off of the actors. Don’t be afraid to laugh, clap, or cry if you are so moved. However, there is a line that can be crossed. Please be respectful, and don’t distract from the work of the professionals on stage. After all, people paid good money to watch the show, not you. Just enjoy the experience and let yourself have an honest response.
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& s t n e m monutes mi
SAVE THE DATE!
FRIDAY MAY 19 @ 7PM
A SPOKEN WORD AND VISUAL ARTS FESTIVAL FOR connecticut 3rd YOUTH UAL ANN
WHAT IS IT? An evening of brand new spoken word poems and visual artwork created by students from all over Connecticut!
SUBMIT YOUR WORK! This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theme is: what do you wish for? Apply at longwharf.org/moments-minutes-festival 36