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Beckett, with a smidgen of hope
Beckett's "Endgame' at the Arden (1st review)
Steve Cohen
Samuel Beckett's 1957 black comedy Endgame disturbed theatergoers by amplifying Cold War fears of nuclear annihilation. Hamm and Clov seemed to be living in an air-raid shelter, echoing Beckett's war experiences. When Clov looked out of the window to see the outside world, he reported that he saw "Zero … zero … and zero."
The enigmatic dialogue always causes each listener to react differently, subjectively. Lane Savadove's 2009 direction for EgoPo was a contrasting re-invention, portraying desolation with faded plastic and vinyl in a South Jersey 1970s basement recreation room containing an old TV and a clothes washer and dryer.
Whatever the backdrop, the set for Endgame, normally, is small and claustrophobic. Yet Kevin Depinet's set for the Arden's current production is wide, deep and detailed. Here Beckett's dialogue transpires in the underground parking garage at the World Trade Center right after the 1993 truck bombing that killed six people and injured more than a thousand, offering an early hint of Al-Qaeda's intentions.
Road to 9/11
In effect, Depinet's set prompts a fresh look at Beckett's classic. This is a specific illustration of the end of a world as we knew it; but it's not quite the end of civilization, as Endgame has been interpreted in the past.
This suggests a warning, rather than total catastrophe. Even though Americans learned no apparent lessons in the eight years between the World Trade Center bombing and 9/11, we are after all, still here. That's cause for, maybe, a slight semblance of hope.
The two main characters, mutually dependent, are Hamm, who is blind and unable to walk, confined to a chair; and Clov (James Ijames) who is unable to sit down. Clov wants to leave but can't. Shoved to the side and stuffed in trashcans are Hamm's legless parents.
Loss of control
Viewers can reflect on the nostalgic reminiscences of Hamm's parents as they come to the end of their lives, emasculated and discarded. And we can be frightened by the realization that Hamm was once a man in control, a virtual king— his head covering resembles a crown, and he seems to be sitting on a throne— yet he now has no power. The endless permutations of these thoughts are terrifying, engendering feelings of desolation, dependency, futility, hopelessness.
As Hamm, Scott Greer quietly brings strength and humanity to a character who often, in the past, has seemed overbearing. He delivers his lines reflectively, seemingly spontaneously.
As Clov, James Ijames takes a character that could be a simpleton and renders him clever and humorous. Instead of being bleak nobodies, these people once were strong competitors in the game of life.
Dan Kern and Nancy Boykin are tender as the parents.♦
To read another review by Robert Zaller, click here.
To read another review by Becca Kaplan, click here.
The enigmatic dialogue always causes each listener to react differently, subjectively. Lane Savadove's 2009 direction for EgoPo was a contrasting re-invention, portraying desolation with faded plastic and vinyl in a South Jersey 1970s basement recreation room containing an old TV and a clothes washer and dryer.
Whatever the backdrop, the set for Endgame, normally, is small and claustrophobic. Yet Kevin Depinet's set for the Arden's current production is wide, deep and detailed. Here Beckett's dialogue transpires in the underground parking garage at the World Trade Center right after the 1993 truck bombing that killed six people and injured more than a thousand, offering an early hint of Al-Qaeda's intentions.
Road to 9/11
In effect, Depinet's set prompts a fresh look at Beckett's classic. This is a specific illustration of the end of a world as we knew it; but it's not quite the end of civilization, as Endgame has been interpreted in the past.
This suggests a warning, rather than total catastrophe. Even though Americans learned no apparent lessons in the eight years between the World Trade Center bombing and 9/11, we are after all, still here. That's cause for, maybe, a slight semblance of hope.
The two main characters, mutually dependent, are Hamm, who is blind and unable to walk, confined to a chair; and Clov (James Ijames) who is unable to sit down. Clov wants to leave but can't. Shoved to the side and stuffed in trashcans are Hamm's legless parents.
Loss of control
Viewers can reflect on the nostalgic reminiscences of Hamm's parents as they come to the end of their lives, emasculated and discarded. And we can be frightened by the realization that Hamm was once a man in control, a virtual king— his head covering resembles a crown, and he seems to be sitting on a throne— yet he now has no power. The endless permutations of these thoughts are terrifying, engendering feelings of desolation, dependency, futility, hopelessness.
As Hamm, Scott Greer quietly brings strength and humanity to a character who often, in the past, has seemed overbearing. He delivers his lines reflectively, seemingly spontaneously.
As Clov, James Ijames takes a character that could be a simpleton and renders him clever and humorous. Instead of being bleak nobodies, these people once were strong competitors in the game of life.
Dan Kern and Nancy Boykin are tender as the parents.♦
To read another review by Robert Zaller, click here.
To read another review by Becca Kaplan, click here.
What, When, Where
Endgame. By Samuel Beckett; Edward Sobel directed. Through March 10, 2013 at the Arden Theatre’s Arcadia Stage, 40 N. Second St. (215) 922-1122 or www.ardentheatre.org.
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