Endgame

These pictures represent the final design of "Endgame" by Samuel Beckett.

This was a very interesting, difficult, process for me. I will fully admit that while I still do not care for the play, Beckett does afford a designer almost carte blanche in the visual language of the show and that is exciting. "Endgame" never expressly tells you where it takes place and this was a very hard pill for me to swallow. As I've come to learn in the last few months, I tend to be a very "reactive" designer. I think part of that comes from my experience in small storefront theatre, often having very little time to design and being very conscious about budget. With "Endgame" I had no real clues as to what the space Ham and Clov inhabit looks like. They do mention things, but sometimes contradict themselves and we never really know if they are telling the truth.

In looking at "Endgame" I started to think about reality television shows. One show in particular, "Big Brother," excited me. The concept of this show is that a group of people live in a house and are filmed 24 hours a day. The cameras are hidden, so the people just live their lives, of course they have to do challenges and whatnot, but for most of the day they just hang out. What really struck me about this show is that there is a channel where you can watch the live feeds from the house. This was the element most like "Endgame."

I decided to set "Endgame" in a "tank" of sorts, filming the action with a variety of hidden cameras. The images would be broadcast on television screens mounted on the outside of the tank. Audience members would watch the show never quite knowing if what they are seeing is actually happening inside the tank.

I think that this would be a very exciting, new way to view this work.

Note: I have not designed the inside of the tank as I'm still not quite sure that I know what it looks like, or even that I should know.