Important Stuff, And Funny, Too

    Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame†is one of his most important works. If not iconic like “Waiting for Godot,†it nevertheless contains all the elements of Beckett’s ideas and sensibilities. It is both absurd and very funny. And Berkshire Theater Festival has given it a powerful new production.

   The title comes from the last part of a chess game when only a few pieces remain. Hamm, the protagonist of the play, old and blind, controls the action from his wheelchair at the center of the stage.    His servant, Clov, unable to sit, shuffles here and there attending to his master’s wishes and whims.  Also present — in garbage cans mostly buried below stage level — are Hamm’s aged parents, Nagg and Nell, both legless. Just as in chess, the king, Hamm, has limited movement and depends on another piece, Clov here, for protection. Nell and Nagg are pawns discarded into their garbage bins earlier in the “game.â€

   They all exist in a single room with two curtained windows set high up on the rear wall. They are near the sea, though dialogue suggests no sea is left — nor any sun or clouds or beach. Hamm and Clove depend on each other, and have for years.  They fight throughout the play: Clov wants to leave but cannot seem to do so, Hamm wants everything to be over, but is afraid of what that means. The parents ask for food and argue, mostly inanely, or remember happy days together with lovely words and sentences that quickly deteriorate into silliness.

   Clearly these characters live in a static, confined world of their own. They have a past, and they have a present comprised of the same daily actions, words and responses—an unchanging ritual.  But they have no obviously different future. Even Nell’s death makes no difference in the routine or relationships: Hamm dismisses Clov but still seeks him in the claustrophobic room; Clov, hatted and ready to go, stands glued in place onstage unable to go.

   Beckett laid down firm stage directions for all his plays.  But individual actors have been able to make his characters uniquely their own. Mark Corkins gives Hamm a flailing flamboyance while confined in his chair.  His booming and theatrical voice is just right for the grandiose, self-regarding and self-pitying Hamm. David Chandler’s Clov shuffles robotically about the stage on legs he says that threaten to stop working.  “And where will you be then?†he asks Hamm.  His frequent outbursts of rage at his situation are wonderfully controlled.

   Tanya Dougherty and Randy Harrison, both young but made up and costumed in ghostly white,  convince us of Nell and Nagg’s age and their crotchety, yet still affectionate relationship. Eric Hill has directed with obvious attention to Beckett’s wishes and to the careful timing required to make the  alternately spare or verbose, bleak or funny lines work.

   Beckett is not an easy playwright. The greatest of the absurdists, he loads simple lines with multiple meanings, references and allusions, though you’re never sure that’s what he intended or whether it resulted from his subconscious genius.  And he can be very funny indeed.  

   BTF has been brave to mount “Endgame,†although “Godot†was a great success for the company two years ago. The theater was sold out for the matinee I saw, mainly to participants at a leadership training seminar for school administrators, as my seat neighbor informed me.  

   “Is this a family show,†he asked. He never laughed, nor did many of his colleagues, and he seemed more perplexed than bored. “I guess this is important stuff,†he said after the performance, “but I don’t get it.â€

   It is “important stuff.† But it is also entertaining for anyone who cares about a great play superbly acted and produced.

     “Endgame†plays at the Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, MA, through July 24. For tickets, call 413-298-5576 or go to www.berkshiretheater.org.