Endgame

What does it all mean?  I used to worry about not being able to answer that question when I went to a Samuel Beckett play.  I think I have gradually and painfully learned that sometimes the best moments in the theatre aren't fully understood in a rational sense.  That's particularly true with Beckett, and to some extent with Pinter.  Now I try just to sit back and watch.  The comforting thing is that often the actors don't really know what's going on either, but it doesn't matter.  In the programme for this revival at the Duchess Theatre Mark Rylance, who plays Hamm, says the play is closer to a piece of orchestral music. 'It's made up of contrasts, rather than necessarily a narrative arc or form.'  Rylance is in this Complicite production by Simon McBurney as a bit of light relief before the West End transfer of Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem, in which he gives what I imagine will be an Olivier-winning performance as Johnny 'Rooster' Byron.  Beckett's plays pose a challenge to actors and the truly great ones, like Rylance, relish what he offers.  The last time I saw this play it had Michael Gambon playing Hamm, with Lee Evans as his sidekick Klov, a part played this time around by McBurney.  Originally this production was to have featured Richard Briers and Adrian Scarborough, but both withdrew, and I can't help feeling that in the case of Rylance the production has probably gained a lot in the switch.  Twisting and squirming in his leather armchair on wheels, Rylance turns the blind Hamm into a savage but eloquent monster, a character who is alternately malevolent and joyful.  He's odious but fascinating.  McBurney, an actor who can be irritatingly mannered, isn't quite as funny as Lee Evans but he's pretty droll as the downtrodden Klov, moving around the stage and climbing up ladders as if he has two wooden legs.  Lovely performances also from Miriam Margolyes and Tom Hickey in the two 'dustbin' roles of Nell and Nagg.  The amount of longing and regret that Margolyes extracts from the single word 'Yesterday' is a joy.  There are moments of great pathos and tenderness and unbelievable cruelty in this play, and the suggestions of a post-apocalyptic world where nature has died give the play a 21st century meaning. Did I say meaning?  That was a deliberate mistake.  Go and see this play not just for the superb acting but for a necessary antidote to linear, rational and realistic theatre.

Comments

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Marvellous, wasn't it? Would still like to know what it was all about though. Probably.