Writing 'Waiting for Beckett's Endgame'

In November last year (2014), I wrote a script which was read out in the Friday seminar. It was the first time anything I'd written had been read out by other people. It was an incredible feeling for me.

Two weeks ago I was put into a group of three to do a presentation on Beckett. I had an idea and put it to the group that I could write a script, a didactic play in the style of Beckett, which would inform the audience about the man and how he wrote.
I wrote the script that evening (it took an hour) and sent it to the other two actors. They loved it thankfully. The next day I put it to them that another actor (who was going through personal difficulties) could be added to our group. I'd make some changes to the script by adding a new character. I made the changes that evening and sent them all the script. They loved it.

Over the next two weeks, we rehearsed the play and the feeling I got from watching them act out the works and direction I'd put on the page was life-affirming. To see them bring themselves and put themselves into the character and make the characters something greater than what they were was something indescribable.

On the day of the presentation, everything went well (apart from a couple of missed lines - thankfully, not by me) and we had many laughs and a round of applause at the end. I was over the moon the next day when a young girl went out of her way to compliment my writing. Honestly, it's the greatest moment of my writing life.

And here is the script:

WAITING FOR BECKETT’S ENDGAME

‘A Didactic Comedy in Two Acts’

Characters

Swif      -    Alex Beloe

Beck      -    Chris Chadwick

Wild      -    Lavern Dexter

Joy       -    Bethaney Howe

ACT ONE.

THERE ARE THREE CHAIRS AND A TABLE BEHIND BECK. ON THE TABLE IS A GREEN BANANA ON A STAND. A METRONOME IS BARELY AUDIBLE. JOY ENTERS FROM STAGE LEFT.

JOY:      ‘Waiting for Beckett’s Endgame’.

BECK ENTERS STAGE RIGHT HOLDING A CANE. HE’S WEARING A DRESSING GOWN AND A HAT.

BECK:     ‘A Didactic Comedy in Two Acts’.

BECK SITS IN A COMFORTABLE CHAIR. JOY STANDS OVER HIM.

JOY:      Are you sleeping?

BECK:     I am respecting the naked stage.

JOY BEGINS TO STACK CHAIRS, BEFORE UNSTACKING THEM AGAIN FOR A PROLONGED PERIOD.

BECK:     What are you doing making all that racket?

JOY:      The sun is threatening.

JOY GOES QUIET. SWIF ENTERS STAGE LEFT AND STARES AT JOY.

BECK:     [PAUSE] What are you waiting for? Is there a ‘pause’ in the script?

JOY:      There is always a pause in the script. They’re everywhere.

BECK:     Then why is there silence for an extended period?

JOY:      A young girl has just walked in.

BECK:     A young girl?

JOY:      Yes. Is that symbolic of something do you think – a young girl glides in. Is it symbolic, do you think?

BECK:     Beckett is never symbolic.

JOY AND SWIF STARE AT EACH OTHER FOR A PROLONGED AMOUNT OF TIME.

BECK:     Is this pause in the script?

JOY:      Yes. We ‘stare at each other for a prolonged period of time’ it says.

BECK:     Ask the creature what it wants, will you?

JOY:      What do you want?

SWIF:     I’m a secondary character added to accentuate the essential existentialism with abstract surrealism, miss.

BECK:     The illogical nature of existence, yes, supplanted within a rejection of - realism…

WILD:     There you are, you villain! A curse on your verdant nature.

SWIF CONTINUES TO STARE AT JOY.

JOY:      She is young.

WILD:     She is as old as time.

BECK:     Time is fleeting.

WILD:     It waits like a shadow of a distant soul.

BECK:     Waiting for that last breath.

WILD:     How right you are. Wild.

SHE OFFERS HER HAND TO SHAKE, BUT WITHDRAWS IT WHEN BECK SPEAKS.

JOY:      (Jay-Jay)

BECK:     Jay-Jay! Eternity will crumble before you hear my call. [Pause] Heed me!

JOY BEGINS STACKING AND UNSTACKING CHAIRS.

WILD:     You are a man of vigour.

BECK:     Beckett adores vigour.

WILD:     And pith.

BECK:     Piss. [Pause] Your aide.

WILD:     She tests! me.

BECK:     Vex me?

WILD:     Try not to vex me. She vexed me once.

BECK:     The result?

WILD:     She never did it again.

JOY:      Why – what did you do?

WILD:     I gave her an extended and rambling monologue. [SHE SPEAKS PROUDLY] Frag---mented.

JOY STARES AT SWIF QUIZZICALLY.

BECK:     Is this (pause in the scr-)

JOY:      Yes, I have to stare at her quizzically, it says.

WILD:     Quizzically? That sounds little like Beckett.

JOY:      What does that mean?

WILD:     Beckett would never use the word ‘quizzically’. He’d say - suspiciously.

BECK:     Dubiously.

WILD:     Quite. [SHE PAUSES, THINKING] But we must for now adieu. [COMMANDING] Avanti, nag!

THEY MOVE OFF AS TROTTING HORSES. JOY IS DEEP IN THOUGHT.

JOY:      Why would he give her a rambling monologue? Beckett wrote in French.

BECK:     [VIOLENTLY] Because Beckett had a penchant for logorrhoea! [IN ANGER, HE SWIPES AT JOY WITH A CANE, BUT HITS ONLY AIR. JOY RUBS HER ARM IN MEMORY OF PREVIOUS INJURIES]

JOY:      Don’t shout. I’m not deaf.

BECK:     What?!

JOY:      [UNDER HER BREATH] I just think you’re wrong about quizzically.

BECK:     [SHARPLY] Critic!

JOY IS HURT. SHE OVERACTS TERRIBLY. BECK SMILES, BUT TAKES ON A CONCILIATORY AIR.

BECK:     Come, let us embrace, Jay-Jay, as co-dependants do.

JOY APPROACHES AND THEY EMBRACE FLAILINGLY, BECK WITH ARMS RAISED AND JOY BEHIND. JOY PULLS BECK’S HAT DOWN OVER HIS EYES.

BECK:     So it is that winter does suddenly fall on man and beast.

JOY:      [SARCASTICALLY] How profound.

BECK:     Beckett is always profound.

JOY:      [UNDER HER BREATH] Just bad syntax is all.

JOY GOES BACK TO STACKING AND UNSTACKING CHAIRS.

BECK:     The end of Act One arrives uncelebrated…

END OF ACT ONE.

ACT TWO.

JOY IS STACKING AND UNSTACKING CHAIRS. ON THE TABLE IS NOW A BLACK BANANA FACING UPSIDE DOWN. BECK GETS RESTLESS.

BECK:     What are you doing back there?

JOY:      It’s the beginning of Act Two.

BECK:     Aah, yes… repetition.

JOY:      It’s Beckett.

BECK:     I suppose the imp is back. Am I right?

SWIF ENTERS STAGE RIGHT. SHE IS HOLDING A CANE.

JOY:      She’s back.

WILD ENTERS STAGE LEFT.

JOY:      She’s not alone.

BECK PAUSES AND SPEAKS SOBERLY.

BECK:     Give me that line one more time…

JOY:      She is not alone.

BECK:     That’s better. She ‘is’, not ‘she’s not’. When you do Beckett, you do Beckett right, you fecker.

JOY:      I’m following the script to the letter.

BECK GRUMBLES SOMETHING INCOHERENT. MORE SILENCE.

BECK:     How long does this silence go on for?

JOY:      It doesn’t state. It just says ‘More silence’. [TO WILD] How is your French?

WILD:     En attendant. ‘Diablot’! Why do you just stand so?

SWIF:     I am old.

JOY:      You were young before.

WILD:     The sands of time are coarse. [PAUSE] [TO SWIF] Approach. [SWIF BEGINS TO WALK FORWARD] Stop.

BECK:     Describe, Jay-Jay.

JOY:      The loud one - is telling the quiet one - to move. She’s her slave, I think. Do you have a slave?

WILD:     She needs me. As I too am in need.

BECK:     Always two there are.

WILD:     A master and an apprentice. You may address her.

JOY:      Are you symbolic, Swif?

SWIF:     Beckett is never symbolic, miss.

BECK:     [UNDER HIS BREATH] Fecking right there.

MORE SILENCE.

JOY:      What should I ask it now?

BECK:     Ask her where she’s from.

JOY:      Where are you from?

SWIF:     Ireland, miss.

JOY:      To be sure. She’s from (Ireland-)

BECK:     I know where she’s from. I’m still blind, can’t you see?

JOY:      That doesn’t make sense what you just spoke.

BECK:     It’s feckin Beckett!

JOY:      Stop saying ‘feckin’. They don’t say ‘feckin’ in Beckett.

LONG PAUSE.

BECK:     Always we wait. [PAUSE] Ask her the questions tout de suite so we may walk upon that undiscovered country.

JOY:      Why are you here, Swif?

SWIF:     I already told you, miss.

JOY:      You don’t say much, do you?

WILD:     [UNINTERESTED] Tell it to extemporise.

JOY:      Extemporise, Swif.

SWIF:     I can’t, miss.

JOY:      Why can you not?

SWIF:     I have to follow the script, do I not, miss?

WILD:     Narrate, Mutt! Straighten up first. [SWIF STRAIGHTENS] Articulate! Wait!

JOY:      Why ‘wait’?

WILD:     There is always waiting in Beckett… it’s the ubiquitous theme.

BECK:     I waited till 1989…

A SOBERED SILENCE. SWIF HAS BEGUN HUNCHING OVER AGAIN.

WILD:     It will speak…

SWIF:     Respecting… the naked stage… and there’s always a pause, but it’s NEVER symbolic, existentialism within the illogical nature of existence, embrace the REALISM of- extended and rambling monologue-gog-gog-gog-gog, wrote in French-ench-ench-ench-ench, hates critics loves the co-dependants, and all the while his syntax is- act one act two repetition/cyclical repetition, you do Beckett right, you fecker, you follow the script to the- always two there are, born in the Emerald- Paris! France! There is ALWAYS! waiting --- in Beckett.

SWIF COLLAPSES ON A CHAIR.

BECK: To be sure, he’s a great man - Beckett. He exceeds Swift and Wilde. Joyce even.

BECK’S HEAD LULLS BACK.

WILD: Greater than Joyce?! That’s some bollocks.

WILD COLLAPSES ON A CHAIR.

JOY: No, no. Beckett - is never symbolic!

JOY COLLAPSES ON A CHAIR.

END.


(And now the First draft and notes...)

More emphasis on waiting.

Wild: There you are, you villain!

Swif continues to stare at Joy.

Wild: She is old and dysfunctional.

Joy: She was young.

Wild: She is as old as time. Fleeting.

Joy: Time is fleeting.

Wild: It waits like a shadow of a distant soul.

Joy: Waiting for that last breath.

Wild: How right you are. Wild!

Joy: Jay-Jay!

Beck: Jay-Jay! Eternity will crumble before you hear my call. [Pause] Heed me!

Joy begins stacking and unstacking chairs.

Wild: You are a man of vigour.

Beck: Beckett adores vigour.

Wild: And pith.

Beck: Piss. [Pause] Your aide.

Wild: She tests! me.

Beck: Vex me?

Wild: Try not to vex me. She vexed me once.

Joy: What happened?

Wild: She never did it again.

Joy: Why – what did you do?

Wild: I gave her an extended and complicated piece of dialogue.

Joy: I think you’re wrong about ‘quizzically’.

Beck: Critic!

Joy is hurt.

Beck: Let us embrace as co-dependants do.

Joy approaches and they flail at air, Beck with arms raised with Joy behind. Joy pulls Beck’s hat down.

Beck: So it is that winter does suddenly fall on man and beast.

Wild: How profound.

Beck: Beckett is always profound.

Joy: [under her breath] Just bad syntax is all.

Waiting for Beckett’s Endgame

Beck is sat in a chair. He is staring at something/nothing or he has a hat on his head that covers his eyes. He is snoring.

Joy walks in to the room and past Beck.

Joy: Are you asleep?

Beck: Who can tell in this day and age?

Joy stacks the chairs quietly, before unstacking them quietly.

Beck: What are you doing making all that racket?

Joy: It’s a sunny day out so I thought…

Joy goes quiet.

Swif has walked in and is staring at Joy.

Beck: What are you waiting for? Is there a ‘pause’ in the script?

Joy: There is always a pause in the script. They’re everywhere.

Beck: Then why is there silence for an extended period?

Joy: A young girl has just walked in.

Beck: A young girl?

Joy: Yes. Is that symbolic of something do you think – a young girl glides in. Is it symbolic, do you think?

Beck: Beckett is never symbolic.

Joy and Swif stare at each other for a prolonged amount of time.

Beck: Is this pause in the script?

Joy: Yes. We ‘stare at each other for a prolonged amount of time’ it says.

Beck: Ask the creature what is wants, will you?

Joy: What do you want?

Swif: I’m a secondary character added to accentuate the latent quirkiness and abstract surrealism, madam.

Joy stares at Swif quizzically.

Beck: Is this-

Joy: Yes, this pause is in the script. I have to stare at her quizzically, it says.

Beck: Quizzically? That doesn’t sound like Beckett.

Joy: What does that mean?

Beck: Beckett would never use the word ‘quizzically’. He’d say suspiciously.

Joy: How do you know? Beckett wrote in French.

Beck: Because Beckett had a penchant for logorrhoea! [In anger, he swipes at Joy with a cane, but hits only air]

Joy: Don’t shout. I’m not deaf.

Beck: What?!

Joy goes back to stacking and unstacking chairs. Beck gets restless.

Beck: What are you doing back there?

Joy: I’m busying myself.

Beck: What’s the Imp doing?

Joy: She’s. not. doing. anything.

Beck pauses and speaks soberly.

Beck: Give me that line one more time…

Joy: She isn’t doing anything.

Beck: That’s better. She ‘isn’t’, not ‘she’s not’. When you do Beckett, you do Beckett right, you fecker.

Joy: I’m following the script to the letter.

Beck grumbles something incoherent.

More silence.

Beck: How long does this silence go on for?

Joy: It doesn’t state. It just says ‘More silence’. [Pause] I’m pausing before you ask. [Pause] Hey, do you think this pause is symbolic of something?

Beck: Beckett is never symbolic.

Joy: Can you read French?

Beck: What’s that little urchin doing now? Why does it just stand so? Talk to it. Interrogate.

Joy: What shall I ask?

Beck: Ask her about Roland Barthes.

Joy: Who?

Beck: The ‘Death of the Author’ guy. I think I would’ve like him.

Joy: [To Swif] Come closer.

Swif is about to take a step forward.

Joy: Stop. What’s your name?

Swif: Swif, Madam.

Joy: Swif? Swif? S-wif? Funny name. Is it symbolic of something?

Swif: Beckett is never symbolic, madam.

Beck: [Under his breath] Fecking right there.

More silence.

Joy: What should I ask it now?

Beck: Ask her where she’s from.

Joy: Where are you from?

Swif: Ireland, madam.

Joy: To be sure. She’s from-

Beck: I know where she’s from. I’m still blind, can’t you see?

Joy: That doesn’t make sense what you just spoke.

Beck: It’s feckin Beckett!

Joy: Stop saying ‘feckin’. They didn’t say ‘feckin’ in 1989.

Long pause.

Beck: 1989? What’s so significant about 1989?

Joy: It’s the year you…

Beck: Year I ‘what’?

Joy: It’s the year you were waiting for… your endgame- never mind. [To Swif] Why are you here, Swif?

Swif: I already told you why, madam.

Joy: You don’t say much, do you?

Beck: Tell it to extemporise.

Joy: How the feck do you know what ‘extemporise’ is in French?

Beck: Do as I ask!

Joy: Extemporise, Swif.

Swif: I can’t, madam.

Joy: Why can you not?

Swif: I have to follow the script, do I not, madam?

Beck: Tell it to narrate then!

Joy: Narrate please, Swif. Straighten up first. [Swif straightens] Speak, Swif.

Beck: Wait!

Joy: Why ‘wait’?

Pause.

Beck: There is always waiting in Beckett… it’s the ubiquitous theme.

Joy: Speak, Swif.

Swif: [Swif gives a concise run down of Samuel Beckett’s career and style. It is lengthy]

Beck: He’s a great man - Beckett. He exceeds Swift. And Joyce even.

Joy: Greater than Joyce? That’s some bollocks.

Beck & Swif: No. Beckett is never symbolic!