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Nothing is funnier than unhappiness

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A man sits beneath a black sheet, dead centre of the stage. This is the starting point for a beautifully direct interpretation of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, which is handled with astute gentleness on the part of the younger character Clov (played by Philip Sulter) and a perspicacity and focus of the older, Ham (played by Lindsay Reardon, who also directs the work), which is magnetic.

As its name implies, resonating with chess terminology — of which Beckett was immensely fond — Endgame is an essay on the horror of ageing, and ultimately the meaninglessness of existence in the face of wilting and collapsing senses and abilities.

It also splays open an absurd and complicated reflection on the relationship between the two characters, with barbs around neglect and blindness that are inflammatory and carefully couched in an unrelenting give and take that is cruel, self-pitying and yet at times hilarious.

An incomplete toy dog with a feather for a tail forms a part of the narrative’s repertoire, as does a stepladder, a beach and a window into the world.

This version of Endgame is a curious derivation from the original 1957 work, which comprises four characters. In this version, the parents, Nagg and Nell who have no legs and live in dustbins, have been excised from the script.

Ham who is blind and unable to stand up and Clov who is unable to sit down, re-enact not only a master/servant relationship, but a parent/son one as well, replete as it is with all its associated recriminations and levels of guilt and discomfort.

In a sense the omission of these iconic parents that are effectively reduced to garbage in the original, hurts the dark hilarity stakes of this work, which is arguably amongst Beckett’s most important.

The rhythms and juxtapositions in Beckett’s language are bracing and sophisticated in their simplicity and this production does them proud.

It’s not an easy work to watch and yet it’s something that will suck you into its focus in such a way that you will lose a sense of time.

While you might not develop a sense of empathy with either character, you leave the work with a disturbing sense of futility and an overwhelming sadness.

Endgame is at St Andrew’s Studio 1 today at 4:30pm and 10pm

– By Robyn Sassen

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