ENDGAME is slightly shorter than FIN DE PARTIE is of critical importance. There

are small cuts throughout the play and one fairly large cut. If we assume that

Beckett creates by subtracting, then the later, shorter text is a further development.

Lastly and most obviously, there is the title. Beckett has made it very clear

that the title ENDGAME refers to the endgame in chess. This points to the deep

connection between the play and the chess endgame.¹⁸This connection is not

explicit in the French title, and since the English title is the main clue to this aspect

of the production it seems that the English text is profoundly enriched by this.

2. There is a level of variation in the text of productions which Beckett was

directly involved with, but these variations were born out of the specific needs of

practical production.

For example, when Alan Schneider was mounting ENDGAME at the Cherry

Lane in New York, he was unable to create practical windows that satisfied him. He

wrote to Beckett, somewhat fearfully, about the possibility of painting the windows

on the back wall. Beckett approved.

In a production in Germany, Beckett changed the breed of the dog in the play

from a Pomeranian to a Poodle because a local dignitary was fond of Poodles.

From these two factors one can draw a very important principle in working

on the production. Despite recent cases in which the Beckett estate and Grove Press