End of the line
SHELLEY MARSDEN meets the great Irish actor Tom Hickey, starring in Endgame at the West End… - 08/10/09
Brilliant Irish stage actor Tom Hickey takes on the role of Nagg in ‘Endgame’ with Complicite Theatre Company, in London’s West End. As well as being an accomplished theatre actor trained in the Slanislavski Method, Hickey, 64, has appeared in some of the most accomplished Irish films of modern times, including ‘My Left Foot’ with Daniel Day Lewis; the Neil Jordan-directed ‘Breakfast On Pluto and ‘Inside I’m Dancing’, starring Brenda Fricker and James McEvoy.
Nagg is not an easy role, as those familiar with one of the darkest plays in Samuel Beckett’s oeuvre will be aware, but if anyone can work with it and bring something wonderful out, it’s Hickey. Typically bazaar and abstract, this
one-act play sees a mother and father, Nag and Nel, confined to two dustbins.
Though it may be laced with humour, cheery ‘Endgame’ most certainly is not. The main characters are Ham (Nagg’s son) and Clov, the latter being, in a roundabout way, Ham’s servant. Ham is blind and can’t stand up; Clough has bad sight and can’t sit down. ‘Endgame’, in essence, is Beckett’s pessimistic world view brought to the stage.
Never a man enamoured with existence, Beckett nonetheless never completely gave up on life. One of his most famous lines is, “I can’t go on, I will go on.” It was rumoured that Beckett's favourite line from this play is Hamm's deduction from Clov's observation that Nagg is crying: 'Then he's living”. With ‘Endgame’, each of its foolish characters, like the flames of a dying fire, plays out their own fatal endgame.
Is ‘Endgame’ difficult for the average theatre-goer?
Perhaps that’s Beckett’s strength, in a way. His plays are capable of being interpreted by the audience, quite apart from what the actors are doing altogether, in very different ways. Of his longer plays, Endgame is certainly one of Beckett’s darkest, and is therefore more demanding for an audience.
What was your biggest challenge with ‘Endgame’?
It’s a challenge anyway, but when you’re with Simon McBurney (Clov), who’s directing, he’s very demanding but brilliant as well. It is a tough play to do, there’s no doubt about it, but it’s very rewarding when things are working. The hard work lies in trying to find the way to do it; Beckett does have stage directions, which are best kept to as they give you an idea of the rhythm of the piece. Some would say the Beckett dialogue in this play is like a piece
of music; it has that soft, slow, quick, loud rhythmic quality.
For the full article, buy this week's Irish World at your local newsagents, or pick up a copy HERE from only 50p!
‘Endgame’ is at the Duchess Theatre, London until 5 Dec 2009. For tickets call 0844 847 1722, or visit www.ticketmaster.co.uk.
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