Following their acclaimed collaboration on Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape at fortyfivedownstairs in 2018 and 2019, legendary performer Max Gillies re-teams with director Laurence Strangio to present ENDGAMES this May.
ENDGAMES is a triptych of short works by three master playwrights, Jack Hibberd, Samuel Beckett and Anton Chekhov, writers who, as Gillies puts it, “expanded the frontiers of what could be imagined on our stages.”
“ENDGAMES affords me the opportunity to revive a number of significant persons and personas meandering about in the memory,” says Gillies.
“Hibberd’s Monk O’Neill, who lives his hermit’s life atop One Tree Hill in A Stretch of the Imagination, and Chekhov’s Nyukhin in On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco are both outsiders and I’ve found myself returning to them throughout my career.”
“I first bonded with Monk sixty two years ago, reconnecting on four occasions since, with this encounter likely to be a fond farewell. Beckett’s oddballs and worrywarts – Didi, Clov, and Krapp – became unshakeable life companions very early, and Joe in Eh, Joe is unmistakeably a kindred spirit,” said Gillies.
Gillies and Strangio have both developed versions of A Stretch of the Imagination before, while Strangio has also directed Eh, Joe and Max has performed On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco.
“It’s always interesting to revisit work with fresh eyes and in new contexts,” says Strangio. “This time, it’s about the collaboration between Max and I – that’s the initial pleasure – and more particularly, it’s the opportunity to draw these disparate works together to explore how they speak to each other and to the times.”
“We trace an intriguing and visceral critique from one text to another – aurally, visually, physically – a gradual revelation, an exposure, a coming into the light. There is a profound void, a deficit in these three deeply flawed misanthropes that needs to be unmasked,” said Strangio.
With voice work by Jillian Murray (L’amante anglaise, The Year of Magical Thinking), ENDGAMES features a stellar team of creatives including sound design by Darius Kedros (Krapp’s Last Tape, The Year of Magical Thinking), lighting design by Richard Vabre (Milked, POTUS) and set & costume design by Bethany J Fellows.
ENDGAMES
fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Season: 23 May – 1 June 2025 (preview: 22 May)
Information and Bookings: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com
Image: Max Gillies – photo by Cameron Grant