Flabbergast Theatre's production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame at Pleasance at EICC, Edinburgh, leans into slapstick, raising extra laughs but losing some of the searing threat of the original. The tragicomic characters are wretchedly grotesque, yet the production's lighter tone undercuts the tragedy, though it still conveys a profound sense of loneliness.
A Clowning Fit for Beckett
This production, by a company specialising in physical comedy, demonstrates how well clowning suits Beckett's work. Director Henry Maynard, who also plays Hamm, the master of this reduced and desolate world, is recognisably bombastic, with flamboyant flourishes to his attire: an enormous hanky in his breast pocket and an ancient-looking rug on his knees. Simon Gleave's Clov is his vaudevillian sidekick, with exaggerated comic limps and gurns that almost invite pratfalls. The tragic dustbin duo of Nagg (Derek Elwood) and Nell (Annabel Arden) are ash-faced yet upbeat.
The relationship between the sad clowns holed up in their grimy space, just about surviving the postapocalyptic threat outside, leans into slapstick. It is amusing but lightens the material, undercutting the tragedy, although you certainly feel the sense of loneliness. However, their respective ends are not emotionally searing, and the production is not quite as threatening in its master-slave games.
Exaggerations Illuminate Misery
Still, the exaggerations illuminate certain aspects of the play. One is the intolerable misery that creeps into the lives of these last remaining survivors in Beckett's razed world. “I can't be punished any more,” says Clov at the start. “Can there be misery loftier than mine?” Hamm declares. But here it is clear that their survival comes through speech. “What is there to keep me here?” says Clov. “The dialogue,” replies Hamm. It's true. Rather like Winnie in Happy Days, their stories stave off the terror of the outside and the loneliness of the silence inside, at least for a while.
The performances are pointed, and everyone tells their strange or silly tales with vigour, so that storytelling itself becomes a reason for continued existence.
Set and Climate Chimes
The set incorporates Clov's kitchen rather than placing it offstage, while Hamm is classically positioned at the centre. The high windows on either side of him reveal a landscape too dangerous to traverse. Although descriptions are delivered straight, without reference to our world, Clov's glimpses sound not unlike the endpoint of climate catastrophe. Given current weather turbulence and raised temperatures, it chimes alarmingly.
The production runs at Pleasance at EICC, Edinburgh, until 30 August, as part of the Edinburgh festival.
