Endgame - Richard Briers stars
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
RICHARD Briers (as Hamm), Adrian Scarborough (Clov) and Miriam Margolyes (Nell) will star in Complicite’s new production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, which runs at the Duchess Theatre from September 24 (previews from September 18) to December 5, 2009.
The aged and blind Hamm and his servant Clov co-exist in a mutually dependent and fractious relationship, with only Hamm’s parents, Nell and Nagg, legless from a biking accident, for company. They are condemned to a daily routine sealed off from the void outside.
Endgame was last seen in the West End – at the Albery Theatre – in 2004, when Matthew Warchus directed a cast that included Michael Gambon and Lee Evans.
Although Briers is probably best known for his television roles – in The Good Life and Ever Decreasing Circles – he has appeared on stage in The Tempest (national tour); A Christmas Carol (Lyric Hammersmith); and Coriolanus, Uncle Vanya, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night (Kenneth Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre Company). He was last seen on the London stage in 2002, in Bedroom Farce.
Scarborough’s numerous theatre credits include Time and the Conways, Once in a Lifetime, Henry IV Part I & II, The Mandate and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (National Theatre); Accidental Death of an Anarchist and To the Green Fields Beyond (Donmar Warehouse); and Platonov, The Tempest and Vassa (Almeida Theatre).
Margolyes has appeared in over 40 films including Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (as Professor Sprout), Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet (as Nurse), Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence for which she won a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Little Dorrit for which she won the LA Critics’ Circle Award again for Best Supporting Actress.
She has also appeared frequently on stage in the UK, North America and Australia and has performed her acclaimed one-woman show, Dickens’ Women, all over the world. She was seen most recently as Madame Morrible in the West End production of Wicked.
Endgame will be directed by Complicite’s co-founder, Simon McBurney, who previously worked with Briers in 1997 on The Chairs, which ran as part of the Royal Court Theatre’s residency at the Duke of York’s Theatre before transferring to Broadway.
Taking Sides and Collaboration continue in rep at the Duchess Theatre until August 29, 2009.
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Also at the Duchess Theatre until August 16 (daytime performances): We’re Going on a Bear Hunt