15 Oct 2009

Endgame director-star Simon McBurney
photo by Sarah Ainslie

The new West End production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame officially opens Oct. 15 (following previews from Oct. 2) at the Duchess Theatre, for a run through Dec. 5.

Tony Award winner Mark Rylance and Simon McBurney play Hamm and Clov, respectively, in McBurney's own production, which also features Miriam Margolyses and Tom Hickey as Nell and Nagg. Designs are by Tim Hatley, with costumes by Christina Cunningham and sound by Christopher Shutt. Complicité’s production is produced in the West End by Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer.

In Beckett's one-act play, the aged and blind Hamm (Rylance) and his servant Clov (McBurney) co-exist in a mutually dependent and fractious relationship, with only Hamm’s parents, Nell (Margolyses) and Nagg (Hickey), legless from a biking accident, for company. They are condemned to a daily routine sealed off from the void outside. The play, originally written in French and later translated by the playwright himself into English, was first performed in a French-language production under the title Fin de partie at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1957. It was last seen in the West End in 2004, when Michael Gambon and Lee Evans starred as Hamm and Clov, respectively, in Matthew Warchus' production at the Albery Theatre (now the Noel Coward).

Rylance was last seen on the London stage in the Royal Court's world-premiere production of Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem that ran in July-August 2009. After he completes his run in Endgame, he will return to lead the West End transfer of Jerusalem, which will begin performances at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue Jan. 28, 2010, prior to an official opening Feb. 10, for a strictly limited 12-week season through April 24, 2010. Previously artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe from 1995-2005 where his roles included the title role in Richard II and Olivia in an all-male production of Twelfth Night (winning the Olivier for Best Actor), Rylance won last year's Tony Award for reprising his West End performance in Boeing-Boeing on Broadway. He has also won a BAFTA for "The Government Inspector" and an Olivier for playing Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing at the Queen's Theatre. He has appeared in the films "The Other Boleyn Girl," "Intimacy," "Prospero's Books" and "The Grass Arena" (Radio Times Award for Best Newcomer).

McBurney – actor, writer, director and co-founder of Complicité—has written, directed and acted in over 30 productions for the company, most recently Shun-kin, A Disappearing Number, Measure for Measure, A Minute Too Late, The Elephant Vanishes, Pet Shop Boys Meet Eisenstein (Trafalgar Square) and Strange Poetry (with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in the Walt Disney Concert Hall). In New York, in addition to the Broadway transfer of The Chairs, he directed the 2008 Broadway production of All My Sons (with John Lithgow, Diane Wiest, Patrick Wilson and Katie Holmes) and the 2002 Off-Broadway production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (with Al Pacino in the title role). He is the recipient of the 2008 Berlin Academy of Arts Konrad Wolf Prize for outstanding multi-disciplinary artists.

Margolyes was last seen on the London stage originating the role of Madame Morrible in the London production of Wicked, before reprising the role on Broadway. Other theatre work includes The Importance of Being Earnest (Bath Theatre Royal & US tour), The Killing of Sister George and Dickens’ Women (both West End), Blithe Spirit (Melbourne Theatre Company) and Cloud Nine (Joint Stock/Royal Court). As well as cameos in the "Blackadder" series, her television work includes "Inconceivable," "Wallis & Edward" and "Fall of the House of Windsor;" and for film, "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People," "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," "Ladies in Lavender," "Being Julia," Baz Luhrmann’s "Romeo + Juliet" and "James & the Giant Peach."

Hickey's recent theatre credits include The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other (National Theatre), The Crucible (Dublin's Abbey Theatre) and Uncle Vanya (Gate Theatre). For television, his credits include "The Life of Myles," "Black Day at Black Rock" and "Seascape"; and his many films include "Breakfast on Pluto," "Inside I’m Dancing," "Possession," "The Butcher Boy," "An Awfully Big Adventure," "Raining Stones," "Circle of Friends" and "My Left Foot."

Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) was an Irish writer, dramatist and poet. He wrote in both English and French, and his other principal works include Krapp’s Last Tape, Happy Days and Waiting for Godot. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.

To book tickets, contact the box office at 0844 412 4659 or visit www.nimaxtheatres.com.

Simon McBurney and Mark Rylance in Endgame
photo by Sarah Ainslie