struggled in practical ways to anchor his inspirations with his craft. This gave Jay a

foundation from which to explore without losing his own history.

These are all attributes which made Rachel and Jay actors who I would want

to work with on anything, but given the challenges of ENDGAME, these qualities

were absolutely necessary.

When I first spoke to Jay and Rachel about doing ENDGAME I was not sure

which actor would play which role. My initial instinct was that Rachel would play

Hamm and Jay Clov. This had to do with my own history and identification with

the Clov role and the physical similarity between Jay and myself. In initial readings,

Jay and Rachel flip-flopped roles and after a couple of times through it became clear

that Jay was Hamm and Rachel Clov.⁴

However, I still considered it important that the two actors know as much as

possible about the other role, almost to the point of being able to play it.

In filling out the rest of the four member cast, I began working on an idea to

create a bilingual version of the play; Two of my former colleagues from the Suzuki

company became immediate candidates for Nagg and Nell, and I began to think

about the idea of having the two "ash-can" characters speaking their lines in

Japanese. There was something in this idea which resonated for me personally ,⁵

but there was little in the play to justify such a choice. I was still interested in an

international cast, but by the time it became clear that one of the actors I was

considering would not be available, I was ready to let the bilingual idea go entirely.

During the Summer of 1996 I met a Canadian actor named Norman Armour

who struck me as an excellent actor for the role of Nagg. He had performed a good

deal of Beckett with his own company in Vancouver including KRAPP'S LAST