Reviewed by Paul Treasure
In the mid-1920s, after the unspeakable horrors of the First World War, Nobel Prize-winning poet T.S. Eliot warned us that:
“This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang, but a whimper.”
Some thirty years later, after yet another devastating world conflict, fellow Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett was no longer content merely to warn us, but determined to show us that whimper with all of its lack of glory.
Virginia Moore-Price and her team have taken the limitations of the tiny KADS venue and turned them into strengths in this production. The tiny stage has been turned into a dark and dingy basement and made the already intimate venue claustrophobic. The lighting, by Moore-Price herself, breaks a number of rules of theatre lighting, seeking to obscure far more than it actually shows. It is a huge gamble and a gamble that pays off brilliantly. This is a play where the mood Is far more important than any plot, and the lighting in this production manipulates the mood and our reaction to it with expertise. The set looks horrifically dilapidated and distressed, complementing the inaction onstage, The set team are to be congratulated for creating a set that looms with menace under the dim lighting.
Confined upstage for the duration of the play in two large dustbins, that almost look like giant stock pots, Amanda Watson and Malcolm Douglas are intriguing as Nell and Nagg. Douglas appears vibrant and somewhat buoyant in his appearances as he comments on what is in front of him. Watson, however, manages to imbue Nell with total entropy, as she slowly weakens and then stops. The contrast between the two complements each other brilliantly to the extent that we palpably feel Nell’s absence in later scenes and that without her balancing him, Nagg will also soon wither and die.
Stuck as he is in an armchair for the entirety of the play, Neale Paterson utilises his stentorian tone to bring life into the gargantuan role of Hamm. Ostensibly blind and paralysed, Hamm rattles on for most of the play. A role that could very easily become boring in less capable hands, Paterson manages to command the role. With endless variation in pace and tone, he keeps the play on track, while maintaining one eye on the idea that this character is supposed to be somewhat of a bore. It is definitely not an easy task but Paterson manages it with his eyes closed (literally).
Of the four characters onstage, it is only Clov, played by Zane Alexander, who gets any opportunity to actually move under his own steam. In this crucial role, Alexander’s physical timing is near impeccable. His use of his whole physicality in reacting to other characters highlights the fact that all the other characters are literally constrained in one way or the other. Keeping just this side of actual slapstick he manages to lighten the mood of what can easily be a very oppressive play.
Endgame is not an easy play, neither for the cast, nor for the audience, but this production has certainly been a very valiant attempt. A play that in many ways is more about mood and attitude than it is about plot, the whole production holds together the monotony and ongoing dread that the author intended. It is fantastic to see Community Theatre tackling difficult literary works like this, and doing them well. Fittingly for a play by a Nobel Laureate, this production was as tense and compelling as watching a long fuse slowly approaching sticks of dynamite.
Reviewer Note: Tickets for this review were provided to Paul by the theatre company.
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