Endgame

A stark, bare room is lit with dim, gray light. Curtains are drawn across two windows on different sides of the room and, in the corner, a dirty sheet covers two garbage cans. An old man, Hamm, sits in a chair in the center of the room, also covered by a sheet. A younger man named Clov watches the motionless Hamm, then turns to look through the window toward the sea. Then he turns to look through the other window, toward the land. Clov stumbles away and returns with a stepladder, which he uses to open the curtains covering the sea window. He laughs, then does the same at the other window. He pulls the sheet back from the garbage cans, looks inside, laughs again, and then closes the garbage cans. Carrying one sheet, he walks to Hamm. He whips back the sheet covering the old man, revealing Hamm. The old man wears a dressing gown and a handkerchief is laid across his face. He has a whistle on a string around his neck. Hamm seems to be asleep. Returning to his starting point, Clov remarks that “it must be nearly finished” (6). He announces his plan to return to the kitchen. If Hamm needs him, then he will hear the whistle. As Clov takes the ladder away, Hamm wakes up and removes the handkerchief from his face, revealing a set of dark glasses.

Hamm fiddles with his glasses and handkerchief. He wonders aloud why no one else seems to suffer as he does—neither his parents nor his dog. When he calls for Clov, no one responds. Hamm assumes he is alone and accepts this, as “it’s time it ended” (6). When he tries his whistle, Clov arrives. Peppering his speech with insults, he instructs Clov to prepare his bed. Clov responds that Hamm has only just woken up. Hamm accuses Clov of watching Hamm’s eyes while he sleeps, an accusation Clov dismisses. Hamm’s eyes have turned white, indicating that he is blind. When asked the time, Clov responds that it is the same as usual. He reports being able to see nothing out the windows. Clov and Hamm agree that they’ve had enough of “this…thing” (7).

Clov is sick of his repetitive existence. He answers the same questions every day. When he ignores Hamm’s instructions, Hamm threatens to deny him food. As Clov reaches for Hamm’s sheet, Hamm asks Clov why he has stayed. Clov turns the question around, asking why Hamm has kept him in the house. Hamm admits he had no one else to take care of him. Clov admits that he has nowhere else to go. Hamm fears that Clov is about to leave because Clov does not love him. Clov confesses that the thought has crossed his mind. He admits that he does not love Hamm, though Hamm insists that there was a time when Clov loved him. Clov agrees. Hamm wonders whether he has been too harsh on Clov, who seems to agree that Hamm has made him suffer unduly. Hamm seeks Clov’s forgiveness. He asks about Clov’s sickness, telling him to keep active and to return. Hamm wants to know why Clov has not simply killed him. Clov explains that he does not know the secret combination to the larder where they keep their food.

The two garbage cans begin to stir. From one, a man in a nightcap emerges. This is Nagg, Hamm’s father. As Clov slips away to the kitchen, Nag repeats the words “me pap!” (9). When Hamm whistles for Clov, he tells Clov to give Nagg his pap. When Clov admits that they have run out of pap, Hamm tells him to give Nagg a biscuit. Nagg is not pleased, but Hamm tells Clov to place the lid back on the garbage can and then sit on it, bottling it shut. Clov cannot sit, he reminds Hamm. Conversely, Hamm cannot stand. The men argue about nature and the evolution of bodies and minds. Hamm changes the subject, grilling Clov about his activities in the kitchen. Clov claims that he watches the light begin to fade, and Hamm mocks him. Clov is offended, and Hamm apologizes. In the background, Nagg appears from his garbage can once again, chewing on his biscuit. Hamm asks Clov about the seeds he has planted. They have not sprouted, and Clov does not believe they ever will. Hamm comments on the end of the end, a depressing time, much like all the other times. He orders Clov to go, and Clov happily leaves.

At the rear of the stage, Nagg summons his wife Nell by knocking on the other garbage can. She refuses his request for a kiss as they cannot reach one another. Each day, Nell complains, they go through this same farcical routine. With their senses failing, Nell and Nagg can hardly see or hear one another. Each time they share a memory, they laugh a little less. Though they are cold, they do not want to return inside their garbage cans because they fear being alone. Previously, these cans were lined with sawdust, but now they are lined with sand. Clov has not changed the sand in either garbage can. As Nagg offers Nell part of his biscuit, Hamm shouts at them to be quiet. He speculates on the content on his dreams, even though he knows he cannot sleep. Nagg laughs at Hamm, who cannot hear him, and Nell chides him. She tells Nagg not to laugh at the misery of others; though she admits that “nothing is funnier than unhappiness” (14), the joke has become less humorous over time. As Nell thinks about leaving, Nagg asks her again to scratch his back. She cannot reach. Nagg tries to amuse Nell with an anecdote about a tailor. The story made her laugh before; he first told it to her the day after he proposed to her. Nell claims that she laughed so much at the story then because she was so happy to be engaged. Nagg insists that it was the story that made her happy, so he tells it again. He switches through various voices, playing the role of both the tailor and the English customer who needs a pair of striped trousers, as well as the narrator. The tailor repeatedly makes errors in the customer’s order. Eventually, the customer is too angry. He asks the tailor why a pair of pants should take so long to make, when God made the world in six days. The tailor tells the customer to look at the world, then at “my TROUSERS” (16). Nell does not react. Nagg laughs twice. Hamm tells him to be quiet.

As Nagg goes back into the garbage can, Hamm summons Clov. He tells Clov to throw the garbage cans into the sea. Clov approaches Nell, who is mumbling. Clov checks Nell’s heartrate and declares that she has “no pulse” (17). As Clov is about to obey Hamm’s instruction to screw the cans shut, Hamm calls out suddenly. He needs to urinate and Clov goes to fetch the catheter. He is not quick enough. Hamm and Clov talk about the painkillers Hamm takes and about the doctor who once treated him but is now dead. Obediently, Clov pushes Hamm’s chair around the room. Hamm strikes the wall twice, pronouncing that the “other hell” (18) is outside. He tells Clov to push him back to the center of the room and insists on being constantly adjusted. Clov fiddles with the chair, telling himself that if he could kill Hamm, he would then be able to “die happy” (19).

On Hamm’s instruction, Clov climbs the ladder and examines the world outside the window through a telescope. Peering through the telescope at the audience, he reports that there is nothing to see. Looking at the sea, he announces that the lighthouse has completely sunk. There are no more gulls and the waves have stopped. Though night has not yet arrived, the sun only offers a gray, weak light. Clov complains, but Hamm insists that they must follow their absurd daily routine. He mentions seeing a sore on his chest the previous night. Clov jokes that it might have been his heart but Hamm claims that the sore was alive. Perhaps, he wonders, he and Clov now “mean something” (22). Clov rejects this idea but Hamm continues, wondering whether someone might be inspired by watching their routine. His thought process halts when Clov rubs at a flea. Hamm is surprised that fleas still exist. He tells Clov to kill the flea, fearing that humanity may be able to start afresh. Clov fetches the insecticide, dusting his clothes in the powder. He claims to have killed the flea, but his victory devolves into a petty argument with Hamm about words.

Hamm enthusiastically suggests that he and Clov should travel south in search of “other…mammals” (23). When Clov refuses, Hamm insists that he will go alone. He tells Clov to build him a raft. Before he can start, however, Hamm announces that the time has come to take his medicine. He is wrong, Clov says. Hamm asks Clov about his pains, suggesting that he too will go blind one day. Then he will be as alone as Hamm in the infinite darkness. Clov asks whether Hamm wants him to leave. He says yes, but before Clov can leave, Hamm insists that he stay for Nell and Nagg. If Clov them all, Hamm suggests, then he can have the combination to unlock the larder. Clov refuses, saying to Hamm, “I couldn’t finish you” (24).

As Hamm reminisces, Clov claims that he cannot remember when he first arrived, as he was too young. He does not remember his father, as he has told Hamm many times. Hamm defends himself. He claims that he acted as Clov’s father and that he provided a home for Clov, who agrees with this statement. Hamm stops Clov from leaving and asks about his dog. Clov brings him a stuffed animal, a three-legged dog. Hamm asks Clov to stand the toy dog up, but the best Clov can do is to hold the dog while Hamm pets it. Again preventing Clov’s departure, Hamm asks whether he ever has visions. They talk about Mother Pegg, a mysterious old woman whose light is “extinguished“ (27).