Tom Budge Replaces Robert Menzies in STC's ENDGAME

Robert Menzies has withdrawn from Sydney Theatre Company's forthcoming production of Endgame by Samuel Beckett, for health reasons. Tom Budge has taken on the role of Clov. The production, also featuring Hugo Weaving, Sarah Peirse and Bruce Spence directed by Andrew Upton, is at Roslyn Packer Theatre Walsh Bay from 31 March to 9 May 2015 (Opening Night: Tuesday 7 April at 7.30pm).

STC Artistic Director Andrew Upton said: "Rob is a much loved member of STC's extended family and he has every best wish from all of us for a speedy recovery. We are confident it won't be too long before he is back on our stages again. Thankfully Tom was available to take on the role from day one of rehearsals. I know he will do a wonderful job."

STC's production of Endgame was triggered by Upton and Weaving's collaboration on Beckett's Waiting for Godot in 2013, which tours to London in June 2015. Weaving plays the monstrous Hamm, mercilessly bullying his factotum Clov (Budge) while his old parents, Nagg and Nell (Peirse and Spence), are kept in rubbish bins from which they occasionally emerge but never escape. These four people pass the time brutally toying with each other as only family can. Yet as in Godot, despite apocalyptic bleakness, Beckett miraculously uncovers extraordinary comedy and pathos in his portrait of a ruined world.

Currently on screen in Channel 9's Gallipoli, Tom Budge's stage performances include roles in Melbourne Theatre Company's The Beast and Belvoir's The Lieutenant of Inishmore.

Director: Andrew Upton. Set Designer & Lighting Designer: Nick Schlieper. Costume Designer: Renee Mulder. Composer & Sound Designer: Max Lyandvert. Associate Director: Hugo Weaving
www.sydneytheatre.com.au/endgame