On Tuesday evening I met my friend Lois for dinner at the Panda Inn and to then attended a first reading of "The Endgame" by Samuel Beckett at A Noise Within Theatre in Pasadena. This newly built space provides lots of space for creativity with a 275 seat theater plus smaller acting and rehearsal areas. We were in an upstairs room with a large table in the center and the 30 of us or so setting around them. At the table were the four cast members plus set and lighting designers. The sketches of the costumes were posted on the wall and handed out. Geoff Elliott is directing the play and staring as the character Hamm who is blind and in a wheel chair. His servant is Clov who is afraid to leave his master as "there is no where else." The other two characters are Hamm's mother Nell and mother Nel who are kept in trash bins in the room...sometimes covered with a sheet. The play takes place in the one closed in room. We are not sure that there is anyworld left outside.
The Endgame was written in 1957 at a time of Cold War fear ("duck and cover" raids in the schools). Beckett was of the Beat Generation and wrote on the "essential components of the human condition." The hopelessness of life is pervasive. Yet there is humor in the tragedy.
Geoff Elliot is a powerful presence in the reading of the play. It will open for performance later in October.
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| Portrait of Samuel Beckett |
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| Geoff Elliott, Hamm |
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| Jill Hill, Nell |
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| Jeremy Rabb, Clov |
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| Mitchell Edmonds, Nagg |
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