Endgame Research

Endgame is a play that based on the story written by Samuel Beckett. Director Gordon Edelstein adapts it and changes it into a play. It was a play that leads to two main characters - Hamm, cast by Colin Friels, and Hamm’s servant clov, cast by Luke Mullins. The story is setting in a decaying world, Hamm and all the people around him are in an interdependent relationship. Hamm and his servant clov seem to have many conflicts with each other, as well as Hamm with his parents. It is a story that written in France during the cold war, so it shows how the author feels about the time period, which is timeless, lonely. I see that all the scenes happen in one place, the room where Hamm lives. This brings to audiences that the world is limited and controlled by something, which similar to the cold war.

The author Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin at 1906 and lived in Paris for most of his time. He was a member of the resistance in France during WWII as well as the politics during Cold War. This experience sure influenced him in this play. As I see there are total 4 characters in the play, I understand that this is a play that depends on actors very much. When I read about the director of the play Gordon Edelstein, I know that he loves this play from his heart that he does not want to ruin the play. So when he have great actors like Colin Friels and Luke Mullins, he has the confident to direct the play. I feel a similar way like he does, sometimes people will know their ability to succeed something or not. So I think the play is one of the best work of Gordon Edelstein, and he obviously put a lot of efforts in it. Also, the actors play an important role in the play, they have to expressive their passion through the whole theater to bring audience into their play. As I learn that both of the actors are very professional and they have worked in many plays, I expect they will bring me a great show which I can learn from their acting. Furthermore, the play is set like The Little Warriors, which has only one major place for the whole time. But it has more characters which I expect to hear more conversation as well as the interactions between characters.

Lastly, I am very curious about the lighting design in the theater. I believe there will be more light changes than the last show, which I can learn from it. More than that, I want to see more theaters with different design of lights and learn from them to bring a better performance in our winter musical.