'We are still at the beginning…'
Francis O'Connor is the Set and Costume Designer for Druid Theatre Company's revival of Samuel Beckett's play Endgame, coming to this year's Galway Arts Festival.
Below, he explores the challenges of breathing new life into Beckett's masterwork.
What an extraordinary play to design. Like all of Beckett's plays, the world of Endgame is so distinct. How do you reimagine and reinterpret? How do you hope to bring something new whilst respecting the clarity and specificity of the text?
As we discovered, when Garry and I created Druid’s production of Waiting for Godot in 2016, you trust the play and find, in the detail, the new.
In Endgame, it was the shape of the room that became the key discovery. It should be a room without corners. Without corners the room becomes its own world: you can hide in corners, you can retreat to the shadows. Within a circle you’re truly trapped… for an eternity.
Is it a weapons silo? Is it a lighthouse at the edge of the sea? Is it the inside of a bin, like a giant version of the vessels that contain Nagg and Nell?
Behind those blackened curtains are two windows. The circles defined these windows, a single one opening like a blinking eye.
Containing the space with a ceiling will hopefully help to contain the tension – the pressure cooker effect. The one opening above, a sort of oculus and, aside from the windows, the only aperture to light – a light that very much spotlights Hamm. But where does it come from?
The fracture in the wall hints at trauma, damage. What incident caused this? We see nothing through the windows, no horizon, undefined.
As I write this, I’m conflicted because all of these things should reveal themselves gradually, if indeed at all. Perhaps I should add a 'spoiler alert’ to the start of this note?
The furniture is sparse, indeed there’s only really the chair. We’re still investigating what this chair is. How does Hamm occupy it? Where does it come from?
There are other practical considerations when designing Endgame. The bins are a big one – how to contain two people comfortably within such a small space? I’ve often seen bigger bins in designs of this play but to me they look fake somehow and out of scale. I’ve tried to keep them more in proportion. With no sub-stage to trap, there’s a nifty bit of space management going on inside – they’re bijoux bins! I can’t promise much comfort in there but we’ve done our best.
As with the space, the clothes need the same investigation. I started the rehearsal process by giving clothes into rehearsal that responded to Beckett’s description, so the actors could wear them if they chose. I hoped they might either keep this skin or maybe shed layers and find something else. As I write this, I’ve no idea what that discovery might be. I’ve thoughts of where it might go but I don’t want to pre-empt that journey.
The design process has been one part of that journey and now through rehearsal we will continue the investigation and discovery. We are still at the beginning… we’ve not yet reached the ‘endgame’.
Endgame runs from 5 - 28 July 2024 at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, as part of the Galway International Arts Festival - find out more here.
