Part acting exercise, part mental one (on the part of the audience), the Brooklyn Academy of Music presents a very strong production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame. It's a play which offers more questions than answers with clues to its meaning buried among the text and action, waiting to be unearthed by the curious theatergoer.
In the ruins of a home, somewhere near the sea, lives Hamm (John Turturro) a blind, wheelchair-bound man, tended to by his partially lame and bitter servant Clov (Max Casella). Also living there, in separate (albeit side by side) garbage cans, are Hamm's father and mother, (Alvin Epstein and Elaine Stritch).
"It is nearly finished" Clov says at the beginning of the play, with variations of the phrase repeated throughout the work. The question however, is just what is nearly finished? Is it these people's lives that are coming to an end; the specific scene we are seeing; or has some disaster fallen upon the world as a whole?
Whichever the case, it is obvious hope and happiness have long since fled from this abode and its inhabitants. Reduced to eating scraps of food, getting joy from an unfinished stuffed dog or telling endless stories for questionable amusement, these four are only just surviving. Often Hamm and Clov (in sort of ringmaster and servant personas) verbally attack one another just so each can feel superior to the other for a few seconds.
The relationship between Hamm and Clov is contentious at best, with Clov often threatening to leave; yet for some reason, he seems unable to do so. Interesting that it should be thus as Clov is really the one with the power (and mobility), do to what he wishes. There's also the feeling that what we are seeing has occurred many times before. "We're getting on," Hamm often says happily after an argument, as if this is nothing that hasn't happened already or will so again.
It's these tiny moments that make this play, basically a study in contradictions, fascinating to watch. Much is made of Clov's laboriously moving and climbing a step ladder to open the curtains of two almost opaque windows and then looking out to see nothing; despite Hamm's continued instance for him to try to see anything.
Then there's Clov going to kill a rat saying, "if I don't kill that rat he'll die." Perhaps the one constant throughout is the oppressive loneliness each of the four feel, as well as a need for companionship, interaction and a reason to justify their existence.
In lesser hands the production could be a long, boring mess. That it is not is due to a strong cast who takes the text and makes it come alive; and even more importantly, to the first-rate directorial work by Andrei Belgrader, who is able to bring out a large amount of humor in the story, making it not only interesting, but also fun to watch.
Both Turturro and Casella work well individually, but it's their interplay with one another that makes the play click. Long-time theatre vets Stritch and Epstein have much less to do (especially Stritch), but both acquit themselves well, imbuing their characters with humor, pathos and love; as well as showing the strong affection each has for the other in their all-too-brief scenes.
Anita Stewart's austere set works quite well as does Michael Chybowski's rather neutral lighting.
Endgame is definitely not for someone who wants a mindless night at the theatre, but it's very intellectually stimulating for those who like to analyze and think about what they have just seen.
Endgame
Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, New York
Tickets: 718-636-4100 or www.BAM.org
Closes: May 18, 2008
Running Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
Judd Hollander is the New York correspondent for the London publication The Stage.
Feeds