endgame samuel beckett Director's note: “... viewed as a whole, life really is a tragedy. But gone through in detail it has the character of a comedy. For the doings and worries of the day, the restless mockeries of the moment, the desires and fears of the week, the mishaps of every hour, are all brought about by chance always bent on some mischievous trick; they are nothing but scenes from a comedy. The never fulfilled wishes, the frustrated efforts, the hopes mercilessly blighted by fate, the unfortunate mistakes of the whole life, with increasing suffering and death at the end, always give us a tragedy. Thus, as if fate wishes to add mockery to the misery of our existence, our life must contain all the woes of tragedy, and yet we cannot even assert the dignity of tragic characters, but in the broad detail of life, are inevitably the foolish characters of a comedy.” –Schopenhauer
Daniel Brooks, Director of Endgame
a message from the artistic director In 1999, during Soulpepper’s second season, Daniel Brooks directed a production of Endgame that went on to win the Dora Award for Best Production of the Year. A year ago when I asked Daniel what he would be interested in directing for this season he said Endgame. He felt that there was so much more still to explore. It was something we so rarely do in the theatre world (though it is common in the symphonic world or the opera). A director returns for a second in-depth look at a great production a decade or more later. This time Daniel has the same design team and Diego Matamoros returns as Clov. But the rest of the cast is new and what a cast it is! I for one can’t wait to see how the production has deepened.
Albert Schultz, Artistic Director