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

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      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,