Theatre Review - Endgame
It
is some measure of Samuel Beckett’s genius that his plays continue to resonate
today. His tragicomedies evoke the circular nature of existence and his characters
inhabit a poetic, all too believable, wasteland. Richard Jones’ imaginative double
bill is timely.
In
the rarely performed, Rough for Theatre II, a man (Jackson Milner)
stands at a window, his back to us. We realise he is about to jump to his death.
Alan Cumming and Daniel Radcliffe, two suited bureaucrats, go through his files
and debate whether he can be saved. There are hints of Beckett’s vaudeville
humour, but the play doesn’t entirely succeed as the 30-minute warm-up act.
In
Endgame something apocalyptic has occurred. A man is confined to a room,
unable to leave. An old couple live in two rubbish bins.
Hamm
(Cumming¸ gloriously dishevelled and imperious) sits centre
stage in an armchair on casters. Blind and immobile, he blows on a whistle to
summon his manservant Clov (Radcliffe, displaying a talent for slapstick). Clov
limps across the stage and ascends a step ladder to look out of two high up, small
windows that reveal nothing but a grey expanse. Everything, he claims, is “zero.”
Hamm’s
aged parents Nagg (Karl Johnson) and Nell (Jane Horrocks) are contained in
wheelie bins. Occasionally Hamm throws them a dog biscuit. Their fate is a
harsh indictment of how the old are often neglected or shoved out of sight. We
only know Nell has died because Nagg is found crying. Between them, Johnson and
Horrocks almost steal the show.
But
the central power dynamic is the co-dependency of Hamm, a petty despot, afraid
of being forgotten and Clov his carer. Clov tolerates his mistreatment because to
leave is more terrifying.
Old Vic
Until
28 March
0344
871 7628