No End to Enderby is a film installation by Graham Eatough and Stephen Sutcliffe that playfully questions ideas of posterity and artistic reputation. Comprising two parts, the film is an adaptation of the first and last chapters of the Enderby novels by Manchester-born writer Anthony Burgess (1917-1993), following the life of the eponymous fictional poet.
The first film, Inside Mr Enderby, featuring students from Burgess’ alma mater Xaverian College, tells the story of a school trip from the future to visit the poet in his squalid 1960’s bedsit. The second film, The Muse, follows a young literary historian of the future travelling to a parallel universe in order to meet Shakespeare and establish the authenticity of his work.
Marking the centenary of Burgess’ birth, this new commission reimagines the original chapters within the setting of a theatre and television studio, Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre and the Old Granada Studios. Reflecting their interests in theatricality and presentation of self, this first collaboration between Eatough and Sutcliffe displays the film alongside its sets and props that include a typewriter originally owned by Burgess and on loan from The International Anthony Burgess Foundation.
No End to Enderby premiered at the Whitworth, The University of Manchester, as part of Manchester International Festival, 30 June – 17 September 2017. A second iteration of the work was shown in Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts 20 April – 7 May 2018, at Film City.