Endgame

I’d already agreed to review Theatre Workshop’s new production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame when a friend said to me: “You know that’s the one with the people in bins on stage, don’t you?” and I wondered just what I’d let myself in for. As the play begins, we find ourselves at a kind of apocalypse, a winding down of existence, the four-strong cast of characters waiting for the end. Hamm, the main character (Nabil Shaban, pictured), sums up the situation brilliantly: “Moments upon moments... all life long you wait for that to build up.”

Hamm, resplendent in soiled silk dressing-gown, is blind and unable to walk, but is also trapped, sitting high atop a strange, birdcage structure, emphasising his dependence on his servant, Clov (Garry Robson). There is nothing left in the world; no weather, no change, no animals, and no people – apart from Hamm, Clov and Hamm’s ancient parents, Nell and Nag (the people in the ash cans).

Virtually nothing happens; the whole play is a kind of tragic, uncomfortable wait, as Hamm torments his servant with demands, and Clov relishes mocking his master.

Terrified of being the last man on earth, he continually threatens to leave and abandon Hamm to his fate, but it is a fate that he too must share.
So far so bleak, but Shaban’s masterful physical comedy and a fair amount of bawdy humour undercut some of the doom and gloom, and although the play was written in 1956 its themes could just as well apply to the threat of global warming today.

•Endgame will be at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre on 27 November as part of DaDaFest, and is then touring Scotland from
2-23 February 2008.
For venues and dates,
tel: 01312 265425, www.
theatreworkshop.com