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Acting keeps this Endgame going
ENDGAME
Pentameters
ENDGAME opens with the lines: “Finished, it’s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished.” Predicting that half his audience would be hoping this at some point during his play of pauses and awkward exchanges, Beckett seems to be having fun at our expense.
This is one of Beckett’s most self-aware plays, and, as the title suggests, almost every sentence has an air of finality.
You half expect the writer to emerge chuckling from the wings when someone lifts their hands to clap the ninth phantom final moment.
For this reason, this is not a play for action-lovers or those who have had their attention spans robbed by TV.
But while an hour and a half of near-silence may not have universal appeal, this production cannot be faulted for the quality of its acting.
Bryan Hands is excellent as Hamm, the quintessential grumpy old man, whose words ultimately amount to little more than a few refrains.
But they are delivered here with the right balance of pathos and poetry, ensuring the lines transcend the banal chatter of their appearance.
Even those who like his work rarely find watching Beckett a pleasurable experience at the time, but with acting like this you can at least be sure that the poetry of the lines stays with you long after you’ve regained the feeling in your posterior.
Until April 1
020 7435 3648
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