Endgame and Act Without Words. Samuel Beckett
Endgame Act Without Words I
WORKS BY SAMUEL BECKETT PUBLISHED BY GROVE PRESS
Collected Poems in English and French
The Collected Shorter Plays
(All That Fall, Act Without Words I, Act Without Words II, Krapp’s Last Tape, Rough for Theatre I, Rough for Theatre II, Embers, Rough for Radio I, Rough for Radio II, Words and Music, Cascando, Play, Film, The Old Tune, Come and Go, Eh Joe, Breath, Not I, That Time, Footfalls, Ghost Trio, . . . but the clouds . . ., A Piece of Monologue, Rockaby, Ohio Impromptu, Quad, Catastrophe, Nacht and Träume, What Where)
The Complete Short Prose: 1929–1989, edited by S. E. Gontarski
(Assumption, Sedendo et Quiescendo, Text, A Case in a Thousand, First Love, The Expelled, The Calmative, The End, Texts for Nothing 1–13, From an Abandoned Work, The Image, All Strange Away, Imagination Dead Imagine, Enough, Ping, Lessness, The Lost Ones, Fizzles 1–8, Heard in the Dark 1, Heard in the Dark 2, One Evening, As the story was told, The Cliff, neither, Stirrings Still, Variations on a “Still” Point, Faux Départs, The Capital of the Ruins)
Disjecta: Miscellaneous Writings and a Dramatic Fragment
Endgame and Act Without Words
First Love and Other Shorts
Grove Centenary Editions
Volume I: Novels
(Murphy, Watt, Mercier and Camier)
Volume II: Novels
(Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, How It Is)
Volume III: Dramatic Works
Volume IV: Poems, Short Fiction, Criticism
Happy Days
Happy Days: Production Notebooks
How It Is
I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On:
A Samuel Beckett Reader
Krapp’s Last Tape
(All That Fall, Embers, Act Without Words I, Act Without Words II)
Mercier and Camier
Molloy
More Pricks Than Kicks
(Dante and the Lobster, Fingal, Ding-Dong, A Wet Night, Love and Lethe, Walking Out, What a Misfortune, The Smeraldina’s Billet Doux, Yellow, Draff)
Murphy
Nohow On
(Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho)
Proust
The Shorter Plays: Theatrical Notebooks, edited by S. E. Gontarski
(Play, Come and Go, Eh Joe, Footfalls, That Time, What Where, Not I)
Stories and Texts for Nothing
(The Expelled, The Calmative, The End, Texts for Nothing 1–13)
Three Novels
(Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable)
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot: A Bilingual Edition
Waiting for Godot: Theatrical Notebooks
Watt
Endgame A play in one act FOLLOWED BY Act Without Words I A mime for one player
Samuel Beckett
Endgame, originally published under the title Fin de partie, copyright © 1957 by Les Editions de Minuit. Translation copyright © 1957 by The Estate of Samuel Beckett
Act Without Words I, originally published under the title Acte sans paroles I, copyright © 1956 by Les Editions de Minuit. Translation copyright © 1957 by The Estate of Samuel Beckett
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or the facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.
CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that the plays contained in this volume are subject to a royalty. They are fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and all British Commonwealth countries, and all countries covered by the International Copyright Union, the Pan-American Copyright Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved.
First-class professional, stock, and amateur applications for permission to perform these works, and those other rights stated above, must be made in advance to: Georges Borchardt, Inc., 136 East 57th Street, New York, NY 10022, and payment of the requisite fee is required whether the play is presented for charity or gain and whether or not admission is charged.
Printed in the United States of America
Design and textual supervision by Laura Lindgren
eBook ISBN: 978-0-8021-9881-5
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 58-5332
Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
DISTRIBUTED BY PUBLISHERS GROUP WEST
Endgame
Act Without Words I
Endgame 1
Act Without Words I 95
Endgame A play in one act
For Roger Blin
Fin de partie was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London on April 3, 1957. It was directed by Roger Blin, and the décor was designed by Jacques Noel. Hamm was played by Roger Blin, Clov by Jean Martin, Nagg by Georges Adet, and Nell by Christine Tsingos. Beckett translated the text into English in 1957, and the first English-language performance of Endgame took place at the Cherry Lane Theater, New York, on January 28, 1958. It was directed by Alan Schneider. Hamm was played by Lester Rawlins, Clov by Alvin Epstein, Nagg by P. J. Kelly, and Nell by Nydia Westman.
Acte sans paroles I was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London on April 3, 1957. It was directed and performed by Deryk Mendel, the décor was designed by Jacques Noel, and the music composed by John Beckett. Act Without Words I was performed in 1972 at The Forum Theatre, Lincoln Center, in New York. It was directed by Alan Schneider and performed by Hume Cronyn.
Nagg
Nell
Hamm
Clov
Bare interior.
Grey light.
Left and right back, high up, two small windows, curtains drawn.
Front right,