Beckett's bleakest play: four people in a room, waiting for the end. You'll feel seen.
A performance of Samuel Beckett's 'Endgame', a play in which nothing happens, once - unlike Beckett's first play 'Waiting for Godot' in which nothing happens twice. It is not a play about chess, in any explicit sense, but it does feature a lovable if curmudgeonly old man in a dustbin. Generally accepted to be Beckett's bleakest play - indeed after it's 1957 English debut at the Royal Court, the TLS's Olivier Todd quipped that it made Waiting for Godot look like "a cheerful operetta". However, Beckett himself described it as "the favourite of my plays." Although the programme was not broadcast until 1991 it was recorded in 1989 prior to Beckett's death and had his blessing. This production is particularly notable as it is first full-length television performance of the play.
Acting
Norman Beaton's Hamm: tyrant, clown, and prisoner in one.
Direction
Tony Coe frames Beckett's apocalypse for the small screen.
Production
Two windows, two dustbins, one room — all of existence.
Director
Tony Coe
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Charlie Drake, playing Nagg, was a famous British comedian — Beckett specifically wanted comic actors for his tragedy.
This 1989 recording was Beckett's final approved screen adaptation before his death; he notoriously hated most filmed versions of his work.
GB
