A play aborted and a play jettisoned contrast with Beckett's favorite play, Endgame, which was worked, reworked, and translated from the French. As an approximation, Deirdre Bair is probably right in her Samuel Beckett, 1978 to surmise that Beckett turned to drama when he reached a creative impasse, but drama too can be an impasse, and Beckett labored two years over Fin de partie. Of all his plays, it underwent most extensive revision.

Beckett wrote his friend, anglicist Jean-Jacques Mayoux:

La rédaction définitive de Fin de partie est de 56. Mais j'avais abordé ce travail bien avant, peutêtre en 54. Une première, puis une deuxième version en deux actes avait précédé celle en un acte que vous connaissez.

[The final draft of Endgame dates from 56. But I had started this work much earlier, perhaps in 54. A first, then a second version in two acts...