ENDGAME by Samuel Beckett
Directed by Michael Bolinski

Presented by Hijinx & Gravitas

March 21, 22, 27, 28 & 29 at 8:00pm
March 30, 2008 at 2:00pm
In the Arts Center

Endgame is Samuel Beckett’s second published play. It is commonly considered, along with such works as Waiting for Godot, to be among Beckett's most important works.

The play is about Hamm, an aged master who is blind and cannot stand up, and his servant Clov, who cannot sit down. They exist in a tiny house by the sea, although the dialogue suggests that there is nothing left outside—no sea, no sun, no clouds. The two characters, mutually dependent, have been fighting for years and continue to do so as the play progresses. Clov always wants to leave but never seems to be able. Also present are Hamm's legless parents Nagg and Nell, who live in rubbish bins upstage and initially request food or argue inanely.

From L to R:  John Fabiani (Hamm), Mike Manna (Clov), George Paris (Nagg), Helen Adams (Nell) and Mike Bolinski (Director)

About Hijinx& Gravitas by Michael Bolinski

The creation of Hijinx & Gravitas springs from the crossroads of one rich experience and the wellspring of a new yearning.  

In founding The Shakespeare Project All-Stars, a First Folio based troupe formed in 2002, which has staged productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, and Much Ado About Nothing, I cultivated ensemble playing in our rehearsal process.  Just as you feel most comfortable being yourself around family or trusted friends (essentially those who know you best), The Shakespeare Project All-Stars were comprised of a core of actors, who, through the course of rehearsing and performing with one another over several years, grew increasingly more free to risk in each other’s company and to challenge one another so as to arrive at a deeper exploration of the work.  Out of this process, we created truly dynamic acting choices and rich theatrical experiences for our audiences.  

John Fabiani and Mike Manna, who star as Hamm and Clov in Hijinx & Gravitas’ Endgame, were key members of the Shakespeare ensemble.  In all three of the Shakespeare Project All-Star productions, and especially in their work as Peter Quince (Fabiani) and Nick Bottom (Manna), the dueling creators of the play-within-the-play, in Midsummer, and even in their chance encounters as Malvolio (Fabiani) and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Manna) in Twelfth Night, they played off one another like a pair of virtuoso jazz soloists, each inciting the other to new heights (think Louis Armstrong and King Oliver).   

This strong outgrowth of the Shakespeare productions, rich ensemble playing, has, in an act of kismet, run into a new fascination of mine.  Over the last two years, I have had a reintroduction to Samuel Beckett, stemming from the Thomaston Opera House production of Waiting for Godot.  When I heard that the TOH was mounting this work, I reread the play, as it had been a good seven years since I had last encountered it.  In this rereading I saw worlds of possibilities, as Beckett deftly touches upon the emotional fragility of human existence and the zaniness of everyday life simultaneously.  I had a strong urge to direct the work, and even envisioned casting John Fabiani and Mike Manna as Estragon and Vladimir.  When I found out that the reigns had already been given to another, I had an equally strong desire to act in Godot.  Cast as Vladimir, and alongside one of the finest actors in Connecticut and one of my favorite human beings, John Fabiani, and under the trusting tutelage of director John Long, I had a marvelous exploration into the world of Beckett in the summer of ’06.  

From this experience I began to examine Becekett’s other plays, and a desire to stage his other pieces quickly clutched my imagination.  While potential productions of Happy Days and Krapp’s Last Tape still linger in me, it was Endgame that spoke to me most urgently, and specifically because from the moment I began to read the play, the two actors who immediately rose to mind as Hamm and Clov were John Fabiani and Mike Manna.  The ensemble work that was forged in our Shakespeare days has carried over beautifully into our work on Endgame, as both actors continue to challenge and encourage each other to strive for richer artistry.  

The name Hijinx & Gravitas derives from an attempt to express the two chief characteristics I find prevalent in Beckett’s work, and, to me, the necessary qualities of any great theatrical work.  As in Waiting for Godot, Endgame examines the dark matter of our everyday existence, the incalculable anxieties that haunt us, the fears that pinion our potential, and the dire consequences of falling prey to these predators.  Beckett pursues this examination through the lens of vaudeville and nigh absurdism.  He (amazingly and at times breathtakingly) juggles the holy and the profane, the serious and the silly, asking us to examine and experience both, at times as part of the same serving.  

As I take a longer view at the work that attracts me as a director, the phrase Hijinx & Gravitas nearly sums up my journey as a theatre artist, a curious drive to explore the depths of the human condition, but always with a healthy sense of humor at my side.  

Future Hijinx & Gravitas projects include a May production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, and a possible summer restaging of The Screaming Pancake Theatre’s production of Boston Marriage in New York City.