"Endgame". Pilch. Review by Anuj Mishra

“Finished, it’s finished, nearly finished.” Not the play’s closing remark, but its opening gambit: Samuel Beckett’s Endgame makes no attempt at exposition or climax, the play is constantly and loudly conscious of its movement towards an “end”.

One of Beckett’s more celebrated plays, though less known than Waiting for Godot, Endgame was first performed in 1957. The one-act play focuses upon the blind and senile Hamm – who, unable to stand, is confined to an armchair on wheels set in the exact centre-stage – alongside his used and abused manservant Clov – who, unable to sit, walks with a pronounced limp.

Like Lear, Endgame presents itself as a play about agedness and disability. It differs, disconcertingly, by only showing disabled bodies: Hamm and Clov are joined by Hamm’s even more senile parents, Nell and Nagg, who are confined (and at most points, enclosed) in large bins and relegated to a state of infantility.

Director Killian King successfully exploits the layout of the Pilch to draw the audience into the secluded room inhabited by Hamm – as though we are flies, lice, or rats, clinging to the walls – while we watch Clov and Hamm do dreadfully little. At the back of the set, there are two small and obscured windows, one looks out to ‘sea’ and the other to ‘land’. This room that we, Hamm, and Clov occupy, we are told, is at the “end”.

Nate Wintraub as Hamm did a fantastic job, successfully evincing the character’s duplicitous place of authority over his ensemble of prisoners and simultaneous childish, pitiful dependence on his servant, Clov. The balance of the character’s comedic and unsettling, even abject, personalities was well contrived.

The duo of Nell and Nagg, played by Rowan Brown and Guan Xiong Lam, respectively, acted with flair, their performances unhindered by their uncomfortable-looking restraints. Lim’s negotiation of the dialogue was excellent, veering skilfully from incomprehensible babble to deeply moving fragments of dialogue with his partner.

The highlight of the show, however, was in Lyndsey Mugford’s Clov. Mugford gave a stellar performance as the play’s only mobile character, fulfilling the demands of the role’s physical comedy while rising to its absurdity. At one point, Clov lets a telescope fall and break to the ground, saying, “I did it on purpose.” Mugford delivered the line so naturally that I, ripping up the suspension of disbelief, had to double-check if the line was really in the script or not.

As the play continues to its “end”, other things break apart. In an apparently Beckettian coincidence, parts of the two windows began to fall from the wall, supplementing the intentional breaking of various prop pieces. These set mishaps inadvertently pushed the play into a grey area of performativity, I would be keen for King to somehow coordinate them to recur for the rest of the show’s run.

When Endgame finishes, Nell and Nagg have retreated into their barrels, and Hamm has replaced the handkerchief that covered his face at the beginning of the play. But there is no illusion that everything is as it was before: the floor is scattered with the detritus of broken props and white powder stamped into Clov’s footprints and the tracks of Hamm’s chair-on-wheels.

It is deeply unsettling, and a faithful treatment of Beckett. Relishing in its hilarious displays of unhappiness, King’s Endgame is a success. 

Endgame will continue its run at the Pilch until 9^th November, runtime of 100 minutes.