Beckett's characters await their final days in `Endgame'
NEW YORK—People who are leading desolate and appallingly circumscribed lives, while awaiting the inevitable but slow-in-coming end, really need to have a sense of humor, or irony, or both.
The four characters in Samuel Beckett's enigmatic play, "Endgame," now at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater, are long on mordant humor, although distressingly short of options or answers or even day-to-day necessities.
John Turturro plays Hamm, the narrator of events -- or the lack of events -- with sardonic gusto and aplomb. Blind, mostly paralyzed and confined to a high, rolling armchair in a small, bleak room with his parents and a servant, Hamm appears to be the tyrannical lord of the tattered remnants of his household.
Turturro elegantly commands the stage despite his immobility, giving a bravura performance that is also humane and believable.
Hamm's resentful servant, Clov, is portrayed with wicked humor by Max Casella. Limping, unable to sit down or to leave the household, Clov sullenly does his master's bidding -- or pretends to do so -- while gleefully taking small revenges whenever he can. Seemingly clownish, Casella's Clov expressively conveys the frustrating nature of the men's codependent relationship, and the complexities of their peculiar bond.
Although the world outside has apparently vanished into gray nothingness, the characters don't seem to quite know how things ended up that way. "Something is taking its course," is the most frequently offered explanation. "We're getting on," Hamm often interjects with some satisfaction, or hope. He could be referring to the act of dying, or to the play itself, as he often seems to be addressing the audience with his speeches and storytelling.
Any space problem in their one-room world is solved by Hamm's parents being stuck inside individual trash cans. Elaine Stritch plays Hamm's mother, Nell, and Alvin Epstein plays his father, Nagg, both elderly and near the end of their days. Stritch and Epstein poignantly express their characters' genuine caring for one another, using only their heads and hands. Even if they can no longer see or hear each other clearly, Nagg and Nell enjoy reminiscing about their former happy lives -- that is, when they aren't crying.
"Ah, yesterday!" Nell laments wistfully. When Clov tells Hamm that Nagg is crying, Hamm responds theatrically, "Then he's living."
Beckett's dialogue ricochets between the characters, covering grandiose issues of life and death, juxtaposed with the trivialities that once consumed daily living, such as bicycles and sugarplums and walks by the shore.
Explanations for this limbo are nonexistent, and attempted communications constantly misfire. There is nothing left to do but try to play out the game, whatever it is. Alternate meanings and symbolism can be endlessly parsed afterward by a thoughtful audience.
This talented cast and the authoritative direction of Andrei Belgrader vividly bring life to Beckett's multilayered text. The "something" that is "taking its course" at the Harvey Theater is a consummate production and should not be missed.
"Endgame" runs through May 18.
