Endgame is an uncomfortable play. Beginning in pitch-black darkness this evening, the stage lights slowly fade in, revealing the bleak backdrop for Beckett's absurdist classic. The staging is sparse and grey, a fitting representation of the character's inner lives. Each of them suffer from some form of movement impairment, either shuffling around the stage or leaning inside a pair of metal garbage bins. This is a world where nothing changes, the ideas of yesterday and tomorrow made redundant by the endless repetition of today. "You cry for the night. It falls. Now cry in darkness," the character Hamm says at one point, played by British actor Robert Coleby.
Beckett's strict staging restrictions emphasise the futility of the story world his characters inhabit, although they can feel stifling at times. Thankfully, the cast of this production bring life to the script, illuminating the play's central conceit that nothing is funnier than unhappiness. In particular, Leon Cain's Clov is equally hilarious and compassionate, as the young servant grapples with the temptation to presume meaning in a meaningless world. Ultimately, there is comfort to be found in this representation of the absurd repetition of being alive and it is hard not to feel at least slightly liberated after the stage lights fade out, returning the audience to the darkness.
