Coronation Street stars David Neilson and Chris Gascoyne will be appearing in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, on our stage next year. A co-production between us and the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, director Dominic Hill’s cast is completed by Barbara Rafferty and Peter Kelly.
David Neilson, best known for his role as Roy Cropper in Coronation Street, will play the cruelly manipulative Hamm. Neilson has been a fixture on the Weatherfield cobbles since 1995, and has featured in a number of high-profile storylines. Coincidentally, his last stage appearance in Manchester was as Lucky in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot in spring 2008.
“Chris and I have wanted to do Endgame for quite a while,” says Neilson. “We are both very excited to be working with Dominic Hill as we really enjoyed his recent productions. I am looking forward to going back on stage for the first time in eight years, and to performing at HOME, which is a wonderful new cultural asset for Manchester.”
Hamm’s servile companion Clov will be played by Chris Gascoyne. As well as his role as Peter Barlow in Coronation Street, Gascoyne has appeared in a wide range of theatre productions throughout the UK, most recently as Ray Say in the critically acclaimed The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, a co-production between West Yorkshire Playhouse and Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
“I have had a strange obsession with the works of Samuel Beckett since I was a young actor studying at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama some 25 years ago,” says Gascoyne, “so I feel very privileged to be given this rare opportunity to perform in one his greatest plays alongside my friend and fellow actor David Neilson. I am looking forward to working both in Glasgow and Manchester under the direction of Dominic Hill, who I have wanted to work with for some time.”
Glasgow Citizens regulars Peter Kelly and Barbara Rafferty play Nagg and Nell, Hamm’s parents, whose bleak existence sees them reduced to living in dustbins.