The idea came about whilst I was studying Beckett's Endgame as part of a theatre module and I stumbled across a whole section of his work that I had never heard of. As i was reading through all these short plays (among what is known as the 'Late Plays'), I was struck by their deceptive simplicity and the fact that they could be looked at as distillations of Beckett's theatrical attitudes and philosophies. The idea for the project evolved and eventually took the form of a series of workshops based around four of Beckett's short dramatic pieces. An audition process will take place to determine the small group of actors who will make up the company; the group will then assemble one evening of every week for the workshops. These workshops will not be simple rehearsals, but more a process for research and development - the intention is not to produce a polished performance, rather that the company learn how to approach Beckett dramatically. If this is sucessful we will then move on to the possibility of a full production, taking with us the experience gained here.

Alistair Gardiner