Background information of Endgame

The author of this endgame is called Samuel Beckett. Who was bron in 1906 and died in 1989. He believes that in theatre stories are told by real people in real time before a live audience. Each performance of a play is different to any other. So each one is very dependent on time, actors, technical equipment and the audience. From the public, they view the Beckett’s play and says that he is an Absurdist because he wrote down that human condition was absurdity. Every performance is unique so is this show Endgame. In Endgame, the main characters Hamn, who is unable to stand, blind. Clov, who is son of Hamn, unable to sit. Nagg and Nell, who are Hamn’s parents without legs and lives in a dustbin. They sheltering in an underground room. The background information of the play is that during World War II, the period that the United States is against Axis enemy. From the author Samuel Beckett, because his writing style was influenced by the World War II and under his mind, he always liked to make the setting as the characters are waiting for a death in a world without hope.In the end of the Endgame, the Hamm, who acts as the main character, he was alone and other people disappeared. Which also correspond with the main idea that Samuel wanted audience to feel.

Endgame was written in French in 1957, it pains a bleak portrait but mix both the comedy and tragedy, humanity and despair. Endgame is a play in one act, it is a scripted work. Beginning and end to the play is very clear. During the show, it mainly uses the dialogues and musings of four characters to pass the information to the audience.

For the performance of the play, it performed in a proscenium arch configuration in The Sumner. This place is a very contemporary proscenium arch theatre, quite different in design and aesthetic to other proscenium arch theatres. For this show, the Endgame, it uses the width, depth and height of the Sumner, this design allows an idea of the large bunker-like structure to be placed on stage.