Endgame (play)

Final (French Fin de partie, Eng. Endgame ) is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett from the year 1956. The French original was transferred itself into English by the author. The premiere of the one-act took place on April 3, 1957 at the Royal Court Theatre in London, as in Paris, initially no theater of the piece ventured, although Beckett was already established after the success of his first stage work Waiting for Godot as a playwright. The German premiere under the direction of Hans Bauer on 30 September 1957 came in Schlossparktheater of Berlin on such a big misunderstanding, that the play closed after only eight performances. Only Beckett's own staging, ten years later in the workshop of the Schiller Theater in Berlin, brought it to 150 performances and was hailed by critics.

Action

Beckett's Endgame is a drama in one act in an empty room and dismal - simply open two small windows high up in the background the view outside - are Hamm, a blind and paralyzed age, sitting on a chair provided with rolls because he can not stand. Next to him stands on stiff legs his servant, Clov, who only go too tedious, but can sit in any case. Hamm's parents, Nagg and Nell, are legless, senile cripple who vegetate in two garbage cans. The world outside of the room is "dead", the four persons could be the only survivors of a global catastrophe.

The relationship between servant and master, between Clov and Hamm is characterized by mutual dislike. Clov Hamm hates and wants to leave him, but he obeyed his instructions ( " Do this, do that, and I will. I never refuse. Why ?") And does not bring the strength to leave his tyrant. Because if he leaves Hamm, this must die because Clov is the only survivor who can look after him. But - and this is the dramatic tension of this tragedy - even Clov would die because Hamm include the remaining food and only he knows " how the pantry add up." Clov is troubled by this dilemma. Hamm, however, is haunted by guilt. He could have given many people food. Now go the stocks he has in time made ​​it to the side to end, just as the world, or what is left of it, the winds down: " Something takes its course ."

Hamm looks confused and neglected. Blind and he defiantly insists that Clov meticulously pushes his wheelchair right in the center of the room. To him, the world is mediated only through the eyes of Clov. The look with the telescope through the two windows left and right in the outside world and speaks what he perceives: on the one hand land on the other side of the sea - " it's all over ."

Hamm's parents have lost their legs in a bicycle accident. The son despises his " cursed producer " as well as they despise him. Nell, the mother, encouraged Clov, secretly go away, knowing that this would mean her death. The words Naggs the Father, reveal its relationship to Hamm: "Who are you called, when you were small and were afraid at night? Your mother? No. Me! We let you scream. We then provide you far away to be able to sleep ... I hope to live for so long that I hear you call me, as once, when you were small and were afraid, in the night, and when I was your only hope was. "

Finally, Hamm gives to his fate and accepted the inevitable: " It's over, Clov, we are at the end. I do not need you anymore. " In a final monologue he gives in to his memories and his self-pity. Clov is waiting, ready to go, but is not.

Interpretation

" Human existence as a frontier situation between life and death, characters who insist on the eternally disappointed illusion of waiting or transfer the certainty of its decline in tragicomic helplessness -. Therefore it goes in all things Beckett's" In the cycle, such apocalyptic scenarios shows final, the human life as a futile search for a way out.

Interpreters have noted that the name " Hamm " the abbreviated form of the word "hammer " and that the three other names for the word " nail " stood " Nagg " for German, " Nell " ( "nail ") for the English and " Clov " ( " clou " ) for the French version. The final was thus " a game for a hammer and three nails ." 1967, Ernst Schröder, who plays Hamm, Samuel Beckett during the dress rehearsal for the final, question whether this interpretation was correct. The author is said to have replied: "If you will. "

Productions

"Endgame " was given by the actors Jean Martin and Roger Blin commissioned and premiered by them on April 3, 1957 at the Royal Court Theatre in London in the first, French version. The German premiere was on 30 September 1957 in Castle Park Theatre in Berlin (directed. Hans Bauer Starring: Bernhard Minetti, Rudi Schmitt, Werner Stock and Else Ehser ). In Beckett's own production, which in the workshop of the Schiller Theatre premiered on September 25, 1967 Werner floor had also with, in addition to Ernst Schröder, Horst Bollmann and Gudrun Genest. The staging, the Joel Jouanneau 1995 at the Théâtre Vidy -Lausanne brought out with Heinz Bennents, David Bennents, Mireille Mosse and Jean -Claude Grenier, was at the Avignon Festival and as part of a tour of over 100 performances in Germany ( in German language ) shown.

Music

To "Endgame " Philip Glass wrote an overture for double bass and timpani (1984).

Output

• Samuel Beckett: Endgame / Fin de Partie / Endgame. Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main ( 1974), ISBN 3-518-36671-8