Briers Ends Stage Career in Complicite Endgame

Richard Briers will make a return to the West End in the Autumn when he stars as Hamm in Complicite’s new production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, which runs at the Duchess Theatre from  24 September to 5 December 2009 (previews from 18 September).

It will be the second time that Briers has collaborated with Complicite director Simon McBurney; the two worked together on The Chairs in 1997, which ran as part of the Royal Court’s residency at the Duke of York’s Theatre and subsequently transferred to Broadway.

Joining Briers in the cast of Endgame are Miriam Margoyles as Nell and Adrian Scarborough, who will play Clov for first six weeks until McBurney takes over the role from 24 October (Scarborough is leaving to work on Alan Bennett‘s new play at the National Theatre – See News, 24 Apr 2009). The role of Nagg is still to be announced.

Set in a bare, partially underground room, Beckett’s 1957 existentialist play finds a wheelchair-bound Hamm passing the time by ordering his servant Clov to move him around, fetch objects and peer out the window for signs of life, while his bin-dwelling parents Nagg and Nell look on.

Endgame was last seen in the West End in 2004, when Matthew Warchus directed a cast led by Michael Gambon and Lee Evans at the Albery Theatre (See News, 15 Dec 2003).

Richard Briers last appeared on the London stage in the 2002 production of Bedroom Farce (See News, 29 Nov 2001). His other theatre work includes The Tempest (national tour), A Christmas Carol (Lyric Hammersmith) and extensive work for Kenneth Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre Company including Coriolanus, Uncle Vanya, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night. Briers is perhaps best known for his television work, including the classic comedy series The Good Life and Ever Decreasing Circles.

Miriam Margolyes‘ most recent stage credits include originating the role of Madame Morrible in the West End production of Wicked, a role she went on to play on Broadway. Her other theatre work includes The Importance of Being Earnest (Bath Theatre Royal & US tour), The Killing of Sister George, Dickens’ Women (both West End) and Cloud Nine (Joint Stock/Royal Court). Her film work includes Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ladies in Lavender, Being Julia and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.

Adrian Scarborough’s many theatre credits at the National include Time and the Conways, Once in a Lifetime, Henry IV Part I & II, The Mandate and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. His other theatre work includes Accidental Death of an Anarchist and To the Green Fields Beyond for the Donmar Warehouse and Platonov, The Tempest and Vassa at the Almeida Theatre.

Endgame is directed by Complicite co-founder Simon McBurney (whose recent productions for the company include Shun-kin, A Disappearing Number, Measure for Measure and A Minute Too Late), designed by Tim Hatley, with costumes by Christina Cunningham, and sound by Christopher Shutt.