Endgame: A Play in One Act and Act without Words: A Mime for One Player (1957)

I remember reading this in anticipation of a lecture at the University of Chicago "First Friday' series. The lecturer certainly saw more references in the play to Dante, Descartes and others than I did. I have seen and read the play again since then and I am still trying to decipher a lot of what happens during the action. That is part of what makes Beckett interesting as a playwright for me. It is a play in one act 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 English title is taken from the last part of a chess game, when there are very few pieces left (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.
In the case of Endgame "Comedy" may be too cheerful a word to use for some of the lighter moments like the episodes in the ashcans. They are part of Mr. Beckett's grim joke on the futility of life. On the whole what Beckett has to say is contrary and nihilistic. But as a writer he can create a mood by using words as incantations. In the Paris Review article "Exorcising Beckett", Lawrence Shainberg claims that according to Beckett the characters' names signify the following: 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. Although the dialogue is often baffling, there is no doubt about the total impression.
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. This is a thinking persons drama and in spite of its bleakness we are still here in the twenty-first century reading and puzzling over this brilliant work. ( )

I read this book for my 20th century British Literature class and I fell in love with the play. The characters in the play are so complex yet once you think about it. Minus the crazy way they live, their relationships to one another is the same that many people today have together. People who have already read this are thinking no I don't put my parents into trash bins until they die. What I'm saying is the trash cans are the same to putting your parents into a nursing home and forgetting all about them until they were about to die. Sure it sounds evil, but it happens. Just like many things is this play actually occur. These similarities is what makes the story really entertaining because of how the play ends. No, I'm not going to tell you what happens finding that out is up to you. I really recommend this book mostly to college students. It is a great play to write a paper on, since it gives you so much to work with. Believe I would know I wrote a 20 page paper on this play and got B only because it had to be longer. ( )

"Use your head, can't you! Use your head! You're on Earth, there's no cure for that!" ( )

Endgame is a text about two men living in an old barren house. They struggle with the inevitability of death and the lack of control they have over their own existence.

It is an interesting play that focuses on aspects of metaphor and symbolism. In a high school class it would generate many discussions and debates. Since the meaning and purpose of the text is not concrete students can create their own perspectives and meanings.

Act Without Words