Few writers can hope to match the challenging respect shown to Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett. A titan of 20th century literature, his estate holds an infamously iron fist over productions, insisting that no reimagining or deviation from his scripts be in any way permitted. In one sense it would seem to strike the plays with a certain rigidity, yet such is the darkly absurd pleasure of Beckett’s writing that there is a unique opportunity for performers to leave their own mark on some of theatre’s strangest characters. Called in at the 11th hour to replace Robert Menzies as Clov in Beckett’s Endgame, where he’ll play alongside Hugo Weaving, Tom Budge has found himself hitting the boards running.

“I found out about 12 hours before the first read-through that I’d be playing the role, so I jumped on a plane and went straight to the STC,” Budge laughs. “So for me it was just the chaos of a job that came from nowhere. But luckily the train hadn’t already started rolling along and I was running alongside to jump on something that was already established. I’d already met with Andrew [Upton, director] about a year ago about possibly playing the role. There was talk at that time of there basically being a giant ladder going to the top of the Sydney Theatre, and he was saying, ‘Look, if you’re really scared of heights, maybe this isn’t right for you.’ So I was a little freaked out by that, but I thought no more about it until that phone call the day before rehearsal. I mean, I only read the play properly on the plane going over!”

Endgame exists as one of the hallmark pieces in the Theatre of the Absurd. While none of the character’s lives are at all enviable – trapped as they are in a claustrophobic, apocalyptic world reduced to a sort of looping insanity – it nevertheless retains its societal relevance over half a century since its premiere. “[Endgame] constantly talks about how there is no more nature, how outside is death,” says Budge. “It’s obviously very relevant to our greatest fears of climate change, but then again there’s the constant question in this play whether any of it is true. Whether outside really is death, and that’s the big question – whether to completely believe everything you’ve been told and risk walking outside to find out. That’s certainly true of some prominent climate change naysayers out there. I mean, the play doesn’t have a tone of hope, really, but you look at politics today and it’s more a matter of, ‘Just don’t think about it, everything’s fine, let’s all keep trucking along.’”

Despite the Beckett estate’s dictum that the play remain unaltered, Budge (whose name seems wonderfully providential in context) has found that within the close confines of the text there remains a wealth of inspiration and creativity.

“Beckett is pretty amazing, it’s all there in the script. Andrew has amazing ideas and will try all sorts of things, but he also feels like something of a caretaker. The whole thing is so carefully written, every stage direction, every pause. The characters turn on a dime. It’s initially quite confronting, and you feel like you’re dribbling out these lines that don’t seem to make sense and have no clear motivations, which as a performer is all a bit terrifying. You start to think that Beckett must have been mad. But soon, those rules start to comfort you. It’s like, one line that sidelines back might connect the following line, but they don’t seem to stand together. It’s very strange, but also very, very exciting.”

Endgame runsTuesday March 31 – Saturday May 9 atRoslyn Packer Theatre Walsh Bay (formerly Sydney Theatre).

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