“You and I, mean something! [Brief laugh.]” · Dramaturgy for Endgame by Samuel Beckett...

“You and I, mean something! [Brief laugh.]”

dramaturgy for Endgame by Samuel Beckett

Actor Materials

compiled by Fly Steffens, Dramaturg

Director Greg Pierotti Assistant Dramaturg Elena Barberia

Dramaturgy Supervisor Dr. Barbara McKean

University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film, & Television Studio Series Fall 2017

Table of Contents Note from the Dramaturg I. What is? Or, Observations on Endgame Hamm Page 5 Clov Page 6 Nagg Page 7 Nell Page 8 II. Fundamental sounds: Form and Content Page 10 III. C’est les mots; on n’a rien d’autre: Language, Text and Meaning Page 12 IV. It is not a metaphor: Performance Page 14 Glossary (compiled by Assistant Dramaturg Elena Barberia) Page 16 Additional Resources available on the D2L Site for TAR 497W: Concordance Word Frequency Lists by Alphabet by number of Occurrences

Index

Other supplemental materials will be made available during the rehearsal process Questions? Contact Fly at [email protected]

Dramaturgy for Endgame by Samuel Beckett Steffens 1

Note from the Dramaturg: This production asserts that the play means itself and that the play is the best and only articulation of itself. In other words, the play doesn’t represent something else: it’s these people in this room having these experiences making these utterances. This production believes, in adherence with Beckett's artistic convictions, that the form of the play is inextricably linked to its content; in no way are they mutually exclusive - in the play, the fusion of form and content is ubiquitous. Furthermore, this production asserts that the content of the play is impossible, inexpressible, and without singular meaning. The following materials are presented to support your search for clarity in reading and performing the play. Thoughts on how the audience experiences the play will come later, but here is a quick thought to contextualize Beckett,: “To engage fruitfully with Beckett’s plays and novels does not necessarily mean to ‘decode’ them or to figure out what they really mean underneath the obscurity. One must heed the challenges they pose to the very acts of reading, viewing, and interpretation. These are beautiful, crafted but thematically elusive plays and prose works. Readers or spectators are often drawn to Beckett, not because of some perceived idea or vision of life, but because of the compelling and utterly unique voice he has on stage and page. Beckett always put much more emphasis on the aesthetic qualities of his work than the meaning that could be extracted from them, on the shape rather than the sense. He once said, tellingly, ‘The key word in my plays is “perhaps”.’ It is a warning which we should still heed” (C 3). “In considering Beckett […] we should make connections without making consolidations, [...] One [interpretation] does not necessarily exclude the other.” (C 21-22) As seen above, citations are noted parenthetically throughout these materials, and are from the following sources unless otherwise noted: Adorno, Theodor. "Trying to Understand Endgame." (New German Critique, 1982). Abbreviated

A, followed by page number. Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of The Absurd. (Vintage Books, 2004). Abbreviated E, followed by

page number Gidal, Peter. Understanding Beckett. (St. Martin's Press, 1986). Abbreviated G, followed by page

number. McDonald, Rónán. The Cambridge Introduction to Samuel Beckett. (Cambridge UP, 2007).

Abbreviated C, followed by page number.


I.What is? Or, Observations on Endgame

“Nothing else is possible besides what is there.”

“There should be actual evidence on the planet for what you report.”

(Elinor Fuchs, Visit to a Small Planet, 6-7)

Space Interior (with exterior acknowledged i.e. the without) Bare. High up, two small windows, curtains drawn. (left and right back) A door (front right) Unseen spaces Beyond the windows (the without) One window faces the earth and one the sea The window to the sea opens Clov’s kitchen (and wall) The inside of the ashbins

The contents of the picture frame


Other notes on space: Beyond the room (in the without; or in the auditorium) is the other hell. The wall is made of hollow bricks. Outside of the room is zero. Outside of the room is death. There’s no one or nowhere else. Time “It’s the end of the day like any other day.” “Well, there we are, there I am, that’s enough.” “Moments for nothing, now as always, time was never and time is over, reckoning closed and story ended.” The time is the same as usual - which may be zero. Containers of time: Sleeping, waking, morning, evening.

Once, yesterday, today, month (unnamed), then, now. Always. Never. The beginning. Ending? (as opposed to The End). How is time marked in the play?

Not by clock, not by the sun. By the sound of footsteps? Time as marked by pain-killer - it either is time for it, or it isn’t.

When it is time for it, there is no more of it. Time marked by something becoming absent

By something ending; negating? Time marked by silences? (oral, actual)

Time marked by movement/changes in objects? Time marked by the clock only if the alarm rings, indicating the absence/death(end)

of Clov (time marked by change from not ended to ended) The time is just now. Or it’s zero - which is not positive or negative Climate The weather is usual (no rain; it hasn’t rained; it won’t rain). No rain, no sun, no wind, no heat? No motion outside of the room At least no/none/not anymore Seeds have not sprouted. They will never sprout. There is no more nature in the vicinity (according to Clov). Nothing stirs. All is corpsed. The room stinks of corpses. The whole universe. The sea is the same. There are no waves. There is no more tide. The sea makes no sound (or at least one cannot hear it).

The sea is calm because there are no more navigators. Outside there was some light before. The sun is zero. It should be sinking. But it has sunk (if light is the same as the sun) It is not night (dark). It is grey. It is light black. It isn’t dark.


Dynamics, or, what changes? Something is (must be) nearly finished. It may end. Something is taking its course. Slowly. If you’ve always had enough of this thing, then there’s no reason for it to change. The end is in the beginning and yet you go on All is absolute. After it (the thing, the something) is finished there will be no more speech. The thing is impossible. Everyone was bonny, once. The box was full, and now it’s empty. Unhappiness is the most comical thing in the world. But it’s always the same thing - it stays funny but no longer elicits laughter. There are so many terrible things (not so many now) Is it possible that there is something better than nothing? Relationships – of power, of need. Does Nell die?

Speaks directly to the question of whether this is endless, cyclical, or a real end game. What doesn’t change? “For all the promises of ending, and for all the evident physical decay, Hamm ends up with the handkerchief over his face the same way he started (the last word in the play is ‘remain’) and Clov seems unable to leave the stage” (C46). “The play is fixed ‘in something spatial […] but also in something temporal. ‘Something is taking its course’ [...] is the key refrain. There is a mechanical, clockwork feel to the movements on stage, a preoccupation with precision and pattern evinced, for instance in Hamm’s obsession about finding the dead center of the room” (C49) Place does not change. It’s still now.

Nothing leaves or ends/finishes - They are getting on (continuing) The same questions bring the same answers They are not beginning to mean something. It will perhaps have all been for nothing. No one knows what’s happened. It doesn’t matter.

Some observations on The Figures

Four people in a room, ending. Or, four people in room, continuing.

HAMM CLOV NAGG NELL


HAMM: Has a very red face. Wears black Glasses. Has a place in the center of the room. Cannot stand. Cannot get out of his chair. Yawns. Shivers if Clov stands behind him. Laughs. Feels sunshine on his face when there is none. Is cold. Hesitates to end. Feels queer (peculiar). Loves the old (same) questions; he’s asked them millions of times. His life was always the life to come. Has something dripping in his head; a heart in his head. Was a tiny boy once; was frightened in the dark and called to Nagg. Was never there; was always absent. Everything happened without him. Never wants to stop playing. Tells a story (chronicle). Has been telling a story. Has told parts of the story before. Soon will finish with the story unless he brings in other characters. Doesn’t know where he would find other characters, nor where to look for them. Hasn’t gotten very far in the story – waits for it to come. Knows the story will end, and how. Did not give Mother Pegg oil for her lamp. He knew what was happening then. Wants Clov to leave; cannot follow Clov. Has made Clov suffer too much Was a father to Clov; his house was a home for Clov. (Does not have a father; does not have a home) Does not want Clov to sing. He can’t prevent him from singing. Cannot explain why Clov obeys him. Drives Clov mad.


CLOV: Has a very red face. Has a stiff, staggering walk. His legs are bad, though he can move and walk. The pain in his legs is unbelievable. His eyes are bad, though he can see all he wants. Is trying to leave; cannot leave. Cannot sit. Cannot go very far. Looks at the wall. Needs the steps to see out the window. Laughs. Wants to sing; he does, and then he doesn’t. Is cold. Stinks. Cannot be punished anymore. Does not complain. Does not remember when he came here. Does not remember his father. Has things to do (things, the thing). Does not know the combination of the cupboard. Has never ridden or owned a bicycle; has ridden a horse. Sees his light dying. Has never thought of one thing. Dreams of order in a silent and still world. Never, to his knowledge, had an instant of happiness. When he falls, he’ll weep for happiness. Is gone and dead in spirit only. Sometimes wonders if he’s in his right mind. Is tired of going on. Is mad. Wants to stop playing. Has never seen Hamm’s eyes. Cannot finish Hamm (nor Nagg, nor Nell) Loved Hamm, once. Is not able to refuse Hamm’s orders. Doesn’t understand why he obeys Hamm. Will not bury Hamm; did not bury Mother Pegg. Will not kiss Hamm (anywhere); will not touch Hamm. Is tired of going on with Hamm. Is driven mad by Hamm. Sometimes what he says he is doing aligns with his actions;

sometimes his actions are contradictory.


NAGG: Very white face. Is in an ashbin. Has stumps. Lost his legs in a bicycle crash with Nell. Eats. Has hunger (or wants food). Sleeps. Lost his tooth (he had it yesterday). Yawns. Sight is failing (or has failed) Hearing has not failed. Laughs. Is cold. Cries. Can cry. Has memories – of Ardennes of Lake Como, for example Has told Nell the story of the tailor before. He tells it worse and worse. Is Hamm’s father. Didn’t know his child would be Hamm. Let Hamm cry in the dark (and did not listen). There is nothing in the world he loves more than Turkish Delight.


NELL: Very white face. Was not asleep. Sight is failing (has failed). Hearing has not failed. Laughs. Has stumps. Lost her legs in a bicycle crash with Nagg. Is cold. Does not want food. Tries to cry; cannot. Has no pulse. Does not appear leaving. Does not remember (though she does). Has memories – of Ardennes of Lake Como, for example Accuracy is important (i.e. sawdust vs. sand)

Or, the difference between what is now vs. what once was is important) Says no to most offers, then pauses and asks for more details. Scratched Nagg yesterday. She does not today. Does not think the story of the tailor is funny. Felt happy when she and Nagg got engaged. Hears Hamm and talks about him, but never speaks to him.


More notes on figures together: Hamm and Clov: If Clov leaves Hamm, they’ll both be dead They are obliged to each other. Both Hamm and Clov suffer, and both reflect on their torment (C45) Nagg and Nell Nagg and Nell cannot kiss. They show longing for one another. Other Figures: The Flea: A flea is in Clov’s pants. It is unclear if he kills it. The Rat: There’s a rat in the kitchen. Clov half-exterminates it. It can’t get away. If Clov doesn’t

kill the rat, it will die. The rat gets away. It can’t go far. The Small Boy: The last time Clov looks at the without, he sees a small boy. The boy will die there or he’ll come to the room. Unseen Figures: A doctor, who was not old, is dead, naturally. Mother Pegg: her light is not on; she is extinguished; she died of darkness. Characters in Hamm’s Chronicle Objects that are: Two ashbins with lids. The ashbins are filled with sand. They used to be filled with sawdust. He (Clov?) fetched the sand from the shore. The sand has not been changed. Armchair on castors (which were oiled yesterday). Two old sheets. Picture frame hung facing the wall. Small stepladder. Whistle that hangs around Hamm’s neck. Handkerchief with blood stains that can fold. Biscuit. Telescope. Gaff. Sprinkling tin with insecticide powder. Toy dog with three legs. It cannot stand. Alarm clock that rings. Objects that are not: There being no more of something means there once was. Characters are aware of what has been lost; the loss has already taken place (C46) Bicycle wheels. Pap. Sugar-plums. Turkish delight. Rugs (blankets) other than the one on Hamm’s lap. Coffins. Pain-killer.


Other observations: This is not much fun - but that’s always the way at the end of the day. If a light is not on, it’s extinguished. They have prayed to God before. God does not exist yet. Praying is not crying. Forcing (force) is fatal (force is motion is energy is metabolism is aging is death). “There has been some kind of catastrophe. Hamm may have had some part in it. The condition presented in the play is nothing other than that in which ‘there’s no more nature’” (A126). On Withheld information: “Everything is coming to an end [including the] less tangible qualities of meaning and clarity. […] The reason for why the world is at this point of expiration, why all outside is grey and flat and lifeless, is not given. Nor is the behavior of the characters explained. Why does Clov do Hamm’s bidding when he resents it so much? Why are Hamm’s parents, the legless Nagg and Nell, confined to ashbins? What is the relationship of Hamm’s chronicle to the play? Does it, as many have suggested, relate to the arrival of Clov in the house? At a production in the Riverside Studio in Hammersmith in 1980, directed by Beckett, Rick Cluchey, playing Hamm at the time, asked Beckett directly if the little boy in the story is actually the young Clov. ‘Don’t know if it’s the story of young Clov or not,’ was Beckett’s characteristic response. ‘Simply don’t know’” (C43).

Note from Greg: (Is Beckett claiming to not know or is he giving direction. He isn’t saying “I don’t know.” Just “Don’t know” That’s a powerful direction if Beckett is telling Hamm to “not Know” whether Clov is the little boy from the story).

II. Fundamental sounds: Form and Content “The form, structure, and mood of an artistic statement cannot be separated from its meaning, its conceptual content; simply because the work of art as a whole is its meaning, what is said in it is indissolubly linked with the manner in which it is said, and it cannot be said in any other way. [...] [a] play itself remains the clearest and most concise statement of its meaning and message, precisely because its uncertainties and irreducible ambiguities are an essential element of its total impact” (E 44-45). “And what passes in these plays are not events with a definite beginning and a definite end, but types of situations that will forever repeat themselves. [...] That is why we do not see Clov actually leave Hamm at the close of Endgame but leave the two frozen in a position of stalemate. [...] Beckett is concerned with probing down to a depth in which individuality and definite events no longer appear, only basic patterns emerge” (E 75-76) “Words like Beckett’s [...] must be the outcome of a painful struggle with the medium of their expression. As Claude Mauriac has pointed out in his essay on Beckett, anyone ‘who speaks is carried along by the logic of language and its articulations. Thus, the writer who pits himself against the unsayable must use all his cunning so as not to say what the words make him say


against his will, but to express instead what by their very nature they are designed to cover up: the uncertain, the contradictory, the unthinkable.’ The danger of being carried along by the logic of language is clearly greater in one’s mother tongue, with its unconsciously accepted meanings and associations. By writing in a foreign language, Beckett ensure[d] that his writing remains a constant struggle, a painful wrestling with the spirit of language itself” (E 38-39). In addition to abandoning conventional style in his prose, “the impulse to shed also made itself felt in his drama, which from the start [...] adopted a spare and unadorned stage setting. But it was not just the props and the cast who were dropped - Beckett abandoned the whole convention of playwriting, the idea that a play should have a beginning, a middle and an end, the notion that characters should be consistent and plausible, the presumption that action and plot were necessary to create dramatic energy” (C 27). “Yet it is only natural that plays written in so unusual and baffling a convention should be felt to be in special need of an explanation that, as it were, would uncover their hidden meaning and translate it into everyday language. The source of this fallacy lies in the misconception that somehow these plays must be reducible to the conventions of the ‘normal’ theatre, with plots that can be summarized in the form of narrative. If only one could discover some hidden clue, it is felt, these difficult plays could be forced to yield their secret and reveal the plot of the conventional play that is hidden within them. Such attempts are doomed to failure. […] Instead of linear development, they present their author’s intuition of the human condition by a method that is essentially polyphonic; they confront their audience with an organized structure of statements and images that interpenetrate each other and that must be apprehended in their totality, rather like the different themes in a symphony, which gain meaning by their simultaneous interaction. But if we have to be cautious in our approach to Beckett’s plays, to avoid the pitfall of trying to provide an oversimplified explanation of their meaning, this does not imply that we cannot subject them to careful scrutiny by isolating sets of images and themes and by attempting to discern their structural groundwork. The results of such an examination should make it easier to follow the author’s intention and to see, if not the answers to his questions, at least what the questions are that he is asking” (E 45-46). “It is customary to think of ‘difficulty’ or ‘obscurity’ as being all about what we do not know. But Beckett proves that the experience of difficulty can come from simplicity as well as complexity. He thwarts expectations not by bombarding us with new information, but by dispensing with familiarity, shattering assumptions and abandoning theatrical conventions. Beckett always refused to offer explanations of what his plays might mean, insisting on the literal validity of what was on the page or stage. He wrote to Alan Schneider, his American Director: ‘I feel the only line is to refuse to be involved in exgesis of any kind. And to insist on

the extreme simplicity of dramatic situation and issue. If that’s not enough for them, and it obviously isn’t, it’s plenty for us, and we have no elucidations to offer of mysteries that are all of their making. My work is a matter of fundamental sounds (no joke intended) made as fully as possible, and I accept responsibility for nothing else. If people want to have headaches among the overtones, let them. And provide their own aspirin’” (C 4-5).


III. C’est les mots; on n’a rien d’autre1: Language, Text and Meaning “Beckett could exploit the possibilities [of a medium] to the full while remaining extremely simple.” Beckett had a “tendency toward extreme conciseness, the concentration on a single but complex and multifaceted image” Beckett is a “creator of moving, three-dimensional images rather than merely a dramatic poet.” Words become “as he once put it, merely ‘what pharmacists call the excipient’, the relatively less important matter that surrounds the effective element, the image” (E 42-43). Image can “dispense with words altogether, or at least one can reveal the reality behind the words, as when the actions of the characters contradict their verbal expression. [...] On the stage, language can be put into a contrapuntal relationship with action, the facts behind the language can be revealed. Hence the importance of mime, knockabout comedy, and silence in Beckett’s plays - [...] Clov’s immobility at the close of Endgame, which puts his verbally expressed desire to leave in question. Beckett’s use of the stage is an attempt to reduce the gap between the limitations of language and the intuition of being, the sense of the human situation he seeks to express in spite of his strong feeling that words are inadequate to formulate it. The concreteness and three-dimensional nature of the stage can be used to add new resources to language as an instrument of thought and exploration of being. […] Language in Beckett’s plays serves to express the breakdown, the disintegration of language. Where there is no certainty, there can be no definite meanings - and the impossibility of ever attaining certainty is one of the main themes of Beckett’s plays” (E86). “The conflict between characters, however identified/interpreted, in Endgame “has been concentrated and immeasurably enriched precisely by having been freed from all elements of a naturalistic social setting and external plot. […] What at first might have appeared as obscurity or lack of definition is later recognized as the very hallmark of the density of texture, the tremendous concentration of a work that springs from a truly creative imagination, as distinct from a merely imitative one” (E 67-68). “For to be alive is to be aware of oneself, to be aware of oneself is to hear one’s thoughts, that endless, relentless stream of words. As a human being suffering from this compulsion Beckett rejects language; as a poet, endlessly compelled to work with language, he loves it. This is the source of the ambivalence of his attitude to language: sometimes it appears to him as a divine instrument, sometimes as mere senseless buzzing” (E84).

1 “These are the words; there’s nothing else” (E85).


Types of Language in Beckett: Misunderstandings Double-entendre Monologues (as signs of inability to communicate) Clichés Repetition of whole phrases and exchanges Repetition of synonyms Inability to find the right words Telegraphic style (loss of grammatical structure, communication by shouted commands) Streams of nonsense Dropping of punctuation, such as question marks, “as an indication that language has lost its function as a means for communication, that questions have turned into statements not really requiring an answer” (E87). Substitution Contradiction Statements and negating statements or counter statements (this thing is; this thing isn’t) “Literary eloquence or grandeur, like natural beauty, is no longer available in this world. Hamm’s turgid attempts to retrieve it simply highlight the absence” (C48). “Bombastic language is immediately deflated by the corporeal [beautiful met with the grotesque, affirmation met with negation]. […] Humor itself has become foolish, ridiculous. […] The jokes of the damaged people are themselves damaged. They no longer reach anybody; the state of decline, admittedly a part of all jokes” (A 134). “In Beckett’s own mis en scene of the pieces, much of the comedy was further eroded [in the English version], including a reduction of Clov’s opening mime and the loss of the lazzo of the dropped telescope. [...] Beckett’s concern was to mark the musicality of the text more prominently in his English version, allowing his formalistic goals for the piece to be more evident [...]. He was concerned with reinforcing echoes in the translation that strengthen the dramatic structure of the play in performance by setting up a series of compelling resonances [such as repetition of phrases, words, gestures]. [...] He also set about establishing a series of leitmotifs, for example, around phrases to do with leaving and employed the facility provided in the language of alliteration and repetition in the forms of the verb ‘to go’”

(Moving Target: Theatre Translation and Cultural Relocation. Routledge, 2014. Page 67). “Pattern is crucial to Beckett’s art, and patterning dominates his theatrical notes and productions: motion is repeated to echo other motion, posture to echo other posture, gestures to echo other gestures, sounds to echo other sounds. The principal analogy is fundamental, and much of that analogy is detailed in the theatrical notebooks. In the Riverside notebook for Endgame Beckett says, for instance, ‘analogy N’s knocks on lid, H’s on wall’; ‘Analogy Clov-dog when trying to make it stand’; ‘Analogy voice and attitude (of Hamm during his narration) with N’s tailor story.’ The action is filled with circles, arcs, and crosses, from Hamm’s rounds to Clov’s thinking walk. The linguistic analogue to such patterning is the revision of phrases to echo each


other. Even when the phrasing is not parallel, Beckett established an echo, as in the Schiller Theater Notebook, where he suggests that ‘Why this farce’ should have the ‘same quality as Let’s stop playing’. Beckett’s own direction of Endgame seems a fulfillment of the original structure he originally outlined for Roger Blin’s Fin de Partie in 1957. ‘He had ideas about the play,’ Blin noted, ‘that made it a little difficult to act. At first, he looked on his play as a kind of musical score. When a word occurred or repeated, when Hamm called Clov, Clov should always come in the same way every time, like a musical phrase coming from the same instrument with the same volume.’ Ten years later Beckett realized this musical conception of the play. ‘The play is full of echoes,’ he told his German cast, ‘they all answer each other’”

(Gontarski, S.E. “Editing Beckett.” Twentieth Century Literature, 1995). IV. It is not a metaphor: Performance

On Not I: “The monologue rattles on, ten words per second. Then stop, quote, continue speaking, stop, show teeth, etc., then block the stoppage, return to Mouth’s movement, speech. It is always the Mouth present as apparatus to transform a process in process. The language, the gesture, the look, and the speed of the Mouth are not in this case suppressing the function of its process. It is never merely mouth used, vehicle for something else, alterior, communicated, out of process, out of hearing, out of sight, out of time.” (G 206-207)

Still from “Not I” written and directed by Samuel Beckett, performed by Billie Whitelaw (1973) “Gesture [in Beckett] is to both emphasize a word, a point, a meaning, and to question it through the undermining of possibilities of gestural questioning, where the questioning is given as the pull-back of assertion.” (G 206) “Even the ‘hysterical’ Speed, repression, gestural symptom, paralysis, etc. in such repetitive representation as to sound, as to image, as to (impossible) attempt to focus on one moment, one non-movement disallows the production of a coherent image of hysteria. Instead, opposed to this (for ‘images of hysteria’ as to anything else [i.e. states of being]), a process of material difference from any real outside of the real of the process of representation-attempts, disillusioning those attempts.” (G 44) On performing Beckett: “Nothing is not play, nothing is not artifice; there is no final humanization of body or mind, for Beckett. There is no full figure to identify, and to be identified with or through, which means the character as character onstage exists, no other. [...] There is no ‘natural living character’ at all, no narrative space of and for living characters” (G 182-183).


"Instead of identity, another process institutes itself: projecting you whilst failing, time and time again, as necessary conventions of narrative are relinquished. That negation, that failure, is the literary move of language, production each time again a question of identity, sentence by sentence” (G 45). “There is nothing there (onstage) to see but [physicality] from first word to last act, the literalisation of that. It is not a metaphor. It is the material per se onstage, and the material of meaning per se in the semiosis of the viewer, within the cultural meanings [of time and place in reality]. The notion of literalisation of material(ity) should not be understood as an orthodox empirical representation of some being or act [of a specific time or place in reality]. To historicize in such a manner would otherwise allow theatrical practice simply the function of illustration and opinion [...]” (G 166). “The act of speech is never in vacuo, the act of gesture is never in vacuo. The marionette-like moves of [Beckett’s figures] are a constant rearragement, a constant attempt at impossible sociality, congruence, synchronicity, of either ‘one’ with either ‘other’. These moves are also a constant attempt at impossible internal synchronicity of the sound/movement/speech/gesture/body’s endless moves ending with no physical concretions other than this body, this mind, this hearing, this sight” (G 200). "As though with eyes drained of tears, [humans in Beckett] stare silently out of his sentences. The spell they cast, which also binds them, is lifted by being reflected in them. However, the minimal promise of happiness they contain, which refuses to be traded for comfort, cannot be had for a price less than total dislocation, to the point of wordlessness. Here every commitment to the world must be abandoned to satisfy the ideal of the committed work of art"

(Adorno, Theodor. “Commitment.” New Left Review, 1974. Page 86). “Timelessness as a concept and a reality never gets credence. The gesture is separate from its signified (signified equals concept). The gesture of difference, moment-to-moment, as signifier, is constantly in process. Always again the meaning ‘of’ an image and ‘for’ a viewer is processed with/through the viewer and with/through the image. Construction is always a material process; it is given as process in [Beckett]” (G74).


Glossary Compiled by Assistant Dramaturg Elena Barberia

Anenometer: an instrument that measures the speed of the wind (60)

Aperture: An opening (42) Ardennes: region in southeast Belgium (23)

Ashbin: A garbage can, a place where waste

is thrown. (7) Aside: a passage said by a character in a

play that is meant to be heard only by the audience and no other characters, even if there are others onstage (86)

“At a pinch…” (Nagg): difficult to do, but possible to be done in an urgent situation (30)

Audition: from the Latin auditonem meaning “a hearing, listening to” (57)

Ballockses: To mess up; English vulgar slang (30)

Biscuit: British origin a baked, flour-based food; cookie (12) Bloom: a youthful or healthy glow in a

person's complexion (18)

Bluebells: a flower native to France and England that blooms from April to May (30)

Bon-bon: piece of candy covered in

chocolate (57)

Bonny: Scottish/Northern English origin

beautiful (50) Bottle: close the lid on the bin (17) Capsized: when a boat turns over in water

(29) Castors: a set of small wheels that can

swivel in any direction at the bottom of a heavy piece of furniture (7)

Catheter: a flexible tube inserted through an opening into a body cavity to remove fluid (usually from the bladder) (32)

Ceres: Roman goddess of agriculture, grain,

and motherly love (47) Chronicle: a factual record of important or

historical events (67) Corpsed: dead, ash-like (37)


Crab louse: a small, parasitic insect that infests the pubic region of the human body (41)

Crumpets: a griddle cake made from flower

and yeast (77)

Disdainful: showing contempt or lack of

respect toward someone or something regarded as inferior (30)

Driveling: talking nonsense without ceasing; alternate: having saliva come from the mouth, drooling (31)

Elegiac: mournful, melancholic (22) Endgame: final stage of a game like chess

or bridge where few pieces or cards remain, after all forces are reduced (90)

Engender: To produce, to make happen (57)

Extinguished: put out, turned off (49) Farce: dramatic work using buffoonery and

horseplay, usually includes crude or improbable situations (21)

Fervour: intensity; passion (46) Flora: Roman goddess of fertility, flowers,

and Spring (47) Fontanelles: the space between the bones of

the skull in a fetus or infant child where said bones haven’t ossified and the structure isn’t fully formed (58)

Fornicator: unmarried person who engages in intercourse (17)

“From pole to pole” (Clov): one pole of the earth to the other; North pole to South pole (39)

Gaff: a stick with a hook, usually used for catching fish (50)

Granaries: a storehouse for grain once it’s

been husked (60) Guffaw: a loud, unrestrained laugh (69) Hash: a mess of something (29) Heap: a haphazard pile (8) Heliometer: a telescope used for finding the

distance between two stars (59) Herring fleet: Boats that go in numbers to

catch the herring fish (52) Hygrometer: a device used to measure the

moisture in the atmosphere (61) Holly: a shrub with prickly, evergreen

foliage and round, bright-red berries, used in decoration especially at Christmas. (60)

“a howling day” (Hamm): the wind was blowing so hard that it made a howling sound (60)

Impassive: without emotion, expressionless (30) Imploring: begging to do something (49) Inanities: nonsensical remarks or actions

(53) Indignant: angry or annoyed (29) Kov: a town in Siberia on the shore of the

Arctic Ocean (60)


Lake Como: lake in Northern Italy’s Lombardy region (28)

Laying doggo: (to lie doggo; lying doggo),

keeping out of sight, concealed (42) Liable: likely to do or to be something,

accountable (41) “Lick your neighbor as yourself!” (Hamm):

possibly a play on Mark 12:31, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ the second commandment from Jesus to the scribes (77)

Lozenge: medicinal tablet that is dissolved in the mouth for sore throats (80)

Lucid: aware, coherent (81) Magnifier: a lens or combination of lenses

that makes something appear larger (36)

Manna: A bread-like substance that God supplied as food to the Israelites, who were wandering in the desert after escaping slavery in Egypt (see Exodus Chapter 16) (61)

Meerschaum: a tobacco pipe made with a

soft white claylike material that has hydrated magnesium silicate, usually used in Turkey (59)

“Mene, mene?” (Hamm): possibly a reference to Belshazzar’s feast (the story of the writing on the wall) from Chapter 5 in the Book of Daniel. Belshazzar has a feast and drinks from vessels from the First Temple that had been looted. A hand appears and writes: “Mene, mene, tekel, parsin.” Meaning “God has numbered your days, you have weighed and found wanting, the kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.” (19)

Microscope: optical instrument used for viewing small objects (85)

Millet Grains: a cereal grass cultivated in the East and in southern Europe for its small seed, or grain, used as food or fodder (78)

“…that old Greek” (Hamm): possibly a reference to Zeno of Elea, a Greek Philosopher known for his paradoxes who Aristotle touted as the inventor of the dialectic (discourse between two or more people holding different points of view) (78)

Muckheap: pile of manure (83) “My kingdom for a nightman” (Hamm):

possibly a reference to a game of chess when a night-man, being a knight, takes another knight; also, a reference to Shakespeare’s Richard III ‘My kingdom for a horse!’ (31)

Navigators: people who direct the route of a mode of transportation, usually by using instruments and maps (74)


“Our revels now are ended” (Hamm): a reference to one of Prospero’s notable speeches on ephemerality and mortality in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (65)

Panama hat: brimmed straw hat, Ecuadorian origin (90)

Pap: a softened food, generally used for invalids (16) Paupers: poor people; recipients of charity (15) Perturbed: unsettled, upset (41) Petition: a written request appealing to an authority, usually signed by numerous participants

(60) Petting parties: session of snuggling or

fondling, “out-in-the-open hug-and-kissfests” (npr.org) arose during the 1920s and was “scandalous” at the time (77)

Pomeranian: a small, foxy-faced dog of Nordic descent (47)

Pomona: Roman goddess of abundance (47) Precipitately: quickly, with haste (85) Proffers: to hold out; offer (25) Progenitor: a fore-parent, an originator (16) Prophetic relish: predicting the future with

gusto (44)

Puntpole: long pole used to prepare a long, narrow, flat-bottomed boat (51)

Raconteur: a storyteller or narrator (29) Reckoning: the time when your actions are

judged as good or bad and you are reward or punished (92)

Revels: lively celebration (65) Rug: British origin A thick woolen coverlet

or wrap, used generally when traveling (8)

Sector: a subdivision, usually of a society or an economy (82)

Sedan: A commune in of the Ardennes in Northern France (23)

Senile quaver: a trembling of the voice due

to mental functions deteriorating during old age (71)

Smart: fashionable and expensive (30) Smithereen: a little bit, the remnants of

something that has been almost destroyed (18)

Solace: comfort during a time of misfortune or trouble (92)

Soliloquy: when a character is speaking their thoughts regardless of the other people around (86)

Spratt’s medium: the Spratt company was the first manufacturer of mass-produced dog biscuits. (17)


Sprinkling-tin: a can with a lid that has holes in it which allows it to turn over and pour out powder (41)

Stancher: person or object that stops the

flow of something (93) Steppe: a vast grassland with few trees,

usually found in Europe, Siberia, and central North America (44)

Sugar-plum: piece of hard candy, seed, nut,

or scrap of spice coated in sugar (57)

Tableau: a group of people in a picture or

scene that remain motionless to represent a moment (7)

Tandem: a bicycle with two seats and two sets of pedals for two riders (23)

Toque: a round, knit cap with a narrow brim or no brim (8)

Tramp: noun: vagabond verb: to walk heavily (66)

Turkish delight: a soft candy made with flavored gelatin and powdered sugar, also called “lokum” or “rahat lokum”, origin: ottoman empire and Iran (64)

Tweed coat: a coat of Scottish origin made

from tweed, which is a rough-surfaced woolen cloth (90)

Underplot: a subplot in a play or other

written work (86) Vehemently: with great feeling,

passionately (41) Vein: a part of the blood circulation system

of the body that extends in the form of a tube, and carries oxygen-depleted blood toward the heart (28)

Vesta: a short wooden or wax match (59)

Whelped: given birth to, generally

associated with dogs (21)

“You and I, mean something! [Brief laugh.]” · Dramaturgy for Endgame by Samuel Beckett...

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