Endgame

Maria Vacratsis and Eric Peterson in Endgame. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

In a drab, gray room with two small windows, a man shuffles quickly back and forth, resembling a trapped mouse trying to find an escape. This is the stark opening scene of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, now being presented by Soulpepper at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Beckett, an avid chess player, appropriately titled the 1957 play “Endgame” in reference to the last part of a chess game, when there are very few pieces left and the playing continues although the players already know the outcome.

Endgame is a one-act play featuring a cast of four. The man shuffling about in the opening scene is Clov (Diego Matamoros), a servant to the wheelchair-bound Hamm (Joseph Ziegler). Clov is unable to sit, hence the running back and forth in the room, and Hamm is unable to stand or see, his bloody eyes covered by dark sunglasses. The relationship between the two men is strained at times, as they get on each other’s nerves, but it is clear that they ultimately need each other to survive. To the right of Clov and Hamm are two trash cans containing Hamm’s mother, Nell (Maria Vacratsis), and his father, Nagg (Eric Peterson). Neither Nell nor Nagg have legs, and so they live in trash cans and look on periodically as Clov and Hamm banter back and forth about their day-to-day lives.

Soulpepper’s version of Endgame is both dark and enlightening at the same time, its witty dialogue providing a contrast with the depressing setting. The cast delivers a strong performance under director Daniel Brooks: Peterson steals the show as Nagg, providing comic relief with his facial expressions and his constant begging for a biscuit or a sugarplum; Ziegler’s Hamm is heartbreaking, as he longs to change the way things are by traveling to the ocean, or by just going outside, but is trapped by his disability; while Matamoros’ Clov is at first resigned to his routine life, but his character develops throughout the production, to the audience’s surprise.

Beckett’s play takes a close look at how humans cope with loss, and how they carry on in spite of knowing how their individual chess game, or life, will end. The road ahead is clear for these characters, but they still take an interest in the every day, whether they be bound by disability or routine.

Endgame runs until November 17 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Visit Soulpepper.ca for more information and to buy tickets.