Alan Mandell Will Finish His Stage Career the Way He Started It: with a Performance of Endgame

The 88-year-old actor first acted in Samuel Beckett’s play nearly 50 years ago—and Beckett watched him do it

“It is hard work,” actor/director Alan Mandell says of performing on stage. “I’ve told someone who asked me about learning lines that it was easier when I was 85.” Yet here he goes once more onto the boards in a new production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame. The show begins previews this weekend and officially opens at the Kirk Douglas Theatre on May 1.

I’ve told someone who asked me about learning lines that it was easier when I was 85.

“I’m getting there,” Mandell says regarding the preparation for his role. He plays Hamm, one of four characters who are perhaps facing oblivion. (Two of the characters live in trashcans, so it would seem they’re halfway there.) “I wake up in the middle of the night going, ‘What was that line?’” he says. “I wake up and [the script] is by my bed. I try to go back to sleep.”

Read the full article online at Los Angeles Magazine.