THE ENDGAME, An electrifying new play by Joanna Pickering at New Perspectives Women’s Work Festival – directed by Illana Stein.
A conversation between playwright and director.
by Chloe Fry (article contains dialogue about sexual assault which may trigger some readers).
This summer a brand new 30 min play The Endgame from award-nominated British playwright Joanna Pickering ran as part of New Perspectives Theatre Company’s annual Women’s Work short play festival. The festival showcased six new plays by playwrights, awarded to be developed under the artistic direction of theatre founder Melody Brooks. All plays looked at world crisis and addressed social change.
Pickering’s play, The Endgame, explores one woman’s struggle to piece together her memories of a sexual assault while playing a game of chess against an unlikely opponent. The play tackles issues of acquaintance rape. Marie Eléna O’Brien played Jane, William Franke played Jay and Celia Berk played Fi. It was directed by Illana Stein (Overall Excellence award in directing at NY International Fringe, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab).
The play was received with strong responses in theatre circles in New York, who regarded it as— “Brutally honest and intense.” “It gets under your skin and stays with you long afterwards.” The performances were noted as “wonderful and expertly fulfilling the demands of the roles,” and “a thought provoking play, as the characters figure out their next move, in a chess game of deep emotion and consequence.” (Joel Stone at NJ Theatre Rep). “The Endgame bravely shows how a man can be chillingly clueless to his culpability, with subtle, honest writing in the hands of a capable director and cast, who handle a tough subject in a nuanced way,” (Caytha Jentis, director). Pickering’s work is often described as “bluntly honest” with The Endgame no exception, a play that is both nuanced and provocative.
To celebrate the success of this brand new play, we spoke with playwright Joanna Pickering and director Illana Stein about their experience bringing this play to stages in New York City.
It’s been a turbulent few years for the industry so I just wanted to start today by asking how are you?
JOANNA: I am euphoric! We just completed a successful run in New York City with incredible audiences and thanks to New Perspectives Theatre. The pandemic has been challenging but artists are experts at prospering in adverse conditions. My plays sold out in Paris before this, but I was performing, and I got Covid. I had to isolate in a foreign city. It was hell. A month later, a chauffeur picked me up for a screenwriting job, my first play Beach Break was backed by an academy award-winning team to adapt for screen, and I was selected to write this new play for NY stages. It’s about riding the highs with the lows. Thanks for asking!
ILLANA: I completely agree with Joanna’s sentiment with the highs and lows. There was a moment, early in the pandemic when I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to get to direct in-person again. Every project after that, even the Zoom-productions felt precious because we knew we could no longer take theater for granted. I strongly value creative, collaborative partners and the chance to create in the room. I don’t think we are out of the pandemic yet, but I am grateful to have many projects on the horizon, including directing the world premiere of Complicity by Diane Davis. It opens at The New Ohio Theatre in NYC for a three-week run, the end of September. I’m also extremely proud of where we landed with Joanna’s play and the overwhelming positive feedback from audiences. Like Joanna, I’m riding that high and taking it with me into my next rehearsal room.
How did it feel to be joining this fantastic, female empowering festival?
ILLANA: It was a privilege to be invited to join this cohort of amazing directors and playwrights. We’ve met each month since February developing six news plays and learning how to work together as a collective. What I love about New Perspectives is their mission with gender parity. Even before it was trendy, they’ve always put women and under-represented voices at the forefront.
JOANNA: I feel humble to have people fighting to bring something I wrote, with strong female perspective, to an audience—something that is not your average play in terms of content and may be controversial. Melody Brooks is a power house, and she handled the risk of the play with expertise. The play is gut wrenching but the process and responses were absolutely empowering. Add five more playwrights—please add the link to their work—all tackling heavy hitting issues, and you’re part of a movement.
What would you say has been your favorite thing about preparing to launch The Endgame?
JOANNA: Can I go first? Three things in order—
- Walking into first rehearsal and our assistant Dana Freeman, was sat with an online chess game. She had mapped out a 30 move chess game to match the blocking of the chess game in my play! I was astounded! She had been working on it for a week! We did not expect the actors memorizing a full chess game, although we did find a simple real one in end—but seeing that was unforgettable.
2. Illana standing her ground under pressure in technical rehearsal, especially as a female with mixed sex crews. She kept saying “we’re close” to encourage everyone but it translated as not good enough yet. I knew in that moment, this is a director that will protect the quality and vision of my work no matter what. That’s important. I do not write easy plays. I place my females in the worst god awful situations, such is life, and then demand them not to play a victim. My females are strong, dominating, characters, but like us, they live in a world where patriarchy exists, so things get very messy. Every female who plays my roles, including myself, turns up ready to play the tragedy of the victim, but it is our duty to show
the strength of these characters. Illana worked overtime to refine the actor’s work over the weeks and did not stop until she got the balance right.
3. The evening the actors visibly let go of the fear of these roles. Neither of my characters in this play act as we want any person to be acting, so there was a huge chance the audience would not like this. Once the actors believed they were doing not only good work, but important work that was landing, they let go completely. They let the characters take them where they needed to go, and dared to have fun playing the roles. The audience went with them—it was electrifying. Even as the playwright, I had no idea what the actors on stage were going to do next. They freed me from the burden of my work, and did what only the very best actors bring— magic—so nothing else matters but that one moment on stage.
ILLANA: I learned a ton doing prep work for Joanna’s play. I relish any piece of theater that allows me to learn something new. I like to be fully absorbed in the world of the play. A fun exploration was understanding the style of Joanna’s piece. I understood we were dealing with a difficult subject matter, but it was couched in the style of absurdist theater. I looked to our absurdist theater greats, Beckett, and Pinter, for clues on how to deepen my approach to Joanna’s play. With Beckett, I found the intensity of the character relationships, characters that both love to torture each other, but also enjoy each other, and they are inexplicably linked. There is no way out. These are the same challenges Joanna’s characters are facing. I looked to Pinter’s plays to understand the specific pauses and how to sharply move from one beat to the next. Both Beckett and Pinter excel at effectively using repetition in language to heighten certain key moments and I found a great deal of that in Joanna’s writing.
JOANNA: Thank you. I saw all of Illana’s work impact on stage. Those Pinter pauses were awesome—as in, wow, thank you. When Jane asks Jay if it happened. The way Illana has Bill pause, then turn, then pass the glass and then answers! Chilling. Exactly right. I didn’t write any of that. That’s all Illana’s direction from finding my pacing and suspense in the writing. All my plays, so far, get referenced to Pinter, but this is the first time I’ve seen a director really emphasize it. I have heard Americans criticize Pinteresque style, because it’s too slow, and nothing is happening for actors to play. I disagree, when you see the beats played as Illana had them on stage, the tension is palpable! It’s all happening in the silences, the small repetitions, heightening the mystery of what is coming. It’s funny Illana, you mention no way out, as my plays also get reference, to No Exit by Sartre. I like to trap my characters in hell and then let them slowly erupt like in a pressure cooker.
ILLANA: No Exit is one of my favorite plays! I definitely mentioned it to the actors for the last moment of your piece.
JOANNA: We should work together—again!
Joanna, where did the inspiration for this piece initially come from?
The chess was a new hobby from the pandemic. I have a degree in pure math, but I was doing math not chess. Chess was boring. When the pandemic hit I decided to learn. I’ve won three online chess tournaments so far, wood, stone and bronze, on www.chess.com so when the festival theme was endgame—it had to involve chess. I knew it was the perfect metaphor for assault—strategy, control, and a psychological battle for control of space on the board. With one exception, chess is a game of perfect information, nothing is hidden from your opponent. Their battle for power is equal, unlike the rest of the play, where everything is mind-games stacked with mystery or deceit.
Regards the issues of sexual assault, so many females have stories, as the me too movement showed, that need to be told. Art is a powerful tool, and the most powerful work has truth, but it’s also fiction. It needs dramatic structure, it has fictional characters.
What is a given, is be careful around a writer. We are more dangerous than anything thrown at us. We have the last word, and get to hold a mirror up. A mirror does not judge, it shows behavior to the rest of the world—for them to judge, and then refine that behavior.
Can you tell us a little about what audiences response were and what they saw?
ILLANA: Watching the audience through the performances was undeniably rewarding. Of course, every performance was a different energy, which is why we love live theater—that visceral feeling sitting in the audience, heart pulsing, watching how certain moments land. However, there was a consistency that I found in each performance, which was watching the audience lean in. As a director, you crave this—a captivated audience, invested in the story and characters. I watched the audience yearning to speak to the main protagonist, telling her they were on her side and there to support her. I can’t give too much away, but where the play ends, it garnered enthusiastic applause each performance, not just because the actors knocked it out of the park, but because the audience was satisfied with the action the main character takes, along with the cliffhanger surprise ending. This left a powerful impact, as Joanna intended, because the audience completely enveloped themselves in the story.
JOANNA: Yes. When you have a full house applaud to that extent, it is not only for the superb performances, but for the fight for justice. It’s been overwhelming. My friend said you could hear a pin drop. The audiences were privy to a conversation no one else will overhear, even in real life. They were uncomfortable but hooked. What resonated for me, was for the whole run, for every single performance, women came up to me and thanked me. They bravely confided this happened to them, and how the play opened a conversation they had been silenced to have—until now.
The show clearly covered some incredibly important, but difficult topics. Why do you think it is so important for creators like yourself to tackle these subjects and open the conversation around sexual assault?
JOANNA: Over 85% of sexual assault is by someone the victim knows, yet under 2% report to the police. That so many rape victims feel they they should not report and keep quiet is alarming. The writer’s duty is go to those places and bring it to the forefront. [Spoiler alert] We exposed the gas-lighting that leads to the disorientation of a victim in the aftermath. I wrote this play deliberately so you cannot doubt the victim from page two. Once that was set up, I push the female character to do things you will criticize. I force you to believe what you want to disbelieve. That paradox makes everyone uncomfortable, and it is exactly what we need to talk about. All rape cases deserve the time to be investigated properly, for accused and victim, but essentially with the knowledge that denial, dissociation, and coping mechanisms such as befriending, or staying in touch, or even having a relationship with an attacker, are in-fact common in real date rape cases. In UK, there is now guidance to ensure police and legal teams are fully educated on this. However, among a victim’s immediate support network there is less understanding.
If even one person leaves my play knowing how to support their friend better, to not doubt her actions or put her behavior on trial over his, or one woman has more confidence to report, that’s crucially important—and it stands to make men accountable before they commit the crime.
ILLANA: It is extremely courageous to tell these type of stories. We want to put characters on stage that we emphasize with and give them a voice. I believe empathy is the source to our healing. As Joanna pointed out, there aren’t too many stories being told like this from a strong female perspective. Acquaintance rape is real. It is more common than we think and we want to empower anyone to speak up. It’s an uncomfortable piece of theater to sit through but an important one. Just like our brave actors, it takes a brave audience, and a brave producer to embrace this type of work and give it a platform.
JOANNA: We found that brave team! When all the players come together like that, the whole becomes bigger than the sum of the parts—the work becomes a force that takes care of us and rewards the bravery. We all felt empowered!
The piece is reviewed as incredibly intense, moving and powerful. Illana, when preparing to direct a show like this, what for you is the most important thing to consider?
ILLANA: When tackling any show, I believe it is crucial for me to get everybody on the same page. We did a lot of table work to make sure of that. We found clarity through character intention and motivation. The why became important, so we could know why characters took certain tactics in this piece. It is exactly like the chess metaphor—I move here, so you move here, but if I move this way, you are forced to defend, or attack…. I love using a metaphor to block out a whole play and the chess metaphor became the perfect staging device. Next we worked on transparency, and safety. We all knew we were taking on darker themes. It is my job as director to create a safe space so the actors are empowered to make bold choices during rehearsals. We worked with an incredible Intimacy and Movement Director, Carson Ferguson. But ultimately, it is the talented actors who brought this story to life. Marie Eléna O’Brien and William Franke were fearless in their portrayal of these characters. Marie Eléna O’Brien brought strength, vulnerability, and conviction to the role of Jane. William Franke has a strong likability factor, which he brought to Jay, a character we aren’t supposed to side with at all. This brought complexity to the character. William worked outside his comfort zone to fully inhabit this role. Celia Berk consistently knew how to land the last line of the play as a real zinger. If you cast the play right, which we did— thanks to help from producer Melody Brooks, then my job is to watch the actor’s impulses, and sharpen and shape them to bring clarity to the storytelling. We had a really strong team and together we created a powerful story to share.
JOANNA: I didn’t get involved in casting except for pointers for the role of Jay. It was so essential to the piece that Jay was likable—a strange request, but we had to see the person before the assault. The person who is trustworthy, friendly, and fun, and why it could be so complicated afterwards. Acquaintance rape is described as a huge betrayal of trust that comes out of nowhere—no prior clues. Bill was perfect as of his charm. Illana could direct Bill into the sinister parts, which evolved in rehearsals. By opening night Bill possessed Jay’s duality with perfection. The audience were against the character, but not so much they resented Jane for not leaving. Both roles are tough and complex, and this balance was crucial for the fundamental message of my play.
Tell us about that message and what you hope audiences took away from The Endgame?
ILLANA: The reason you put up a daring piece of theater like this is to tell audiences you are not alone. You want to reach the person out there who needs to hear this story and offer them support. As Joanna mentioned, we met some of those people who courageously shared their personal experiences. I hope this play leads to other important conversations that perhaps people were too afraid to begin.
JOANNA: The response, from male and females in our audience, is the proof that whatever happens in the aftermath in date assault, when witnessed from this unseen perspective, people absolutely do believe it. When you have a full house, every night, applauding and rallying for our female character—it felt like a job well done.
Congratulations. Is there anything else you would both like to add?
ILLANA: A big thank you to our audiences who came out to support new work!
JOANNA: I am thankful to everyone involved, and our fellow playwrights all doing equally important work, and to New Perspectives Theatre for selecting us! I think I’ll write a comedy next!
ILLANA & JOANNA: Thank you Chloe!
For support as a rape victim or family/friends of rape victims resources click here: RAINE
To view the Endgame full play bill, click here.
For more information on New Perspectives Theatre Company, click here.
For Joanna’s previous work and interviews with us, read here or here
Illana Stein’s Bio click here
Marie Eléna O’Brien Bio click here
William Franke Bio click here
Celia Berk Bio click here
Pickering was sponsored by travel and event agency Vu Limited, click here.
Photography: Terrell Lopez and Dana Freeman
Photograph editing: Kat McDonald.
Location: New Perspectives Theatre, Off Broadway, New York City.
https://www.newperspectivestheatre.org/current-programs/2022/7/20/2022-meganne-george- womens-work-short-play-festival
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