One of Samuel Beckett’s most celebrated plays, Endgame can seem unapproachably austere in its depiction of a living hell. In Danya Taymor’s vibrant new production, the abstraction of four characters trapped in a room after some unspecified catastrophe has new resonance: there is a suggestion of environmental destruction – or perhaps the aftermath of a pandemic.
And uncared-for elderly couple, Nell (Gina Moxley) and Nagg (Seán McGinley) are confined to grey dustbins, in even greyer uniforms, living on scraps of biscuits. Their son, the blind Hamm (Frankie Boyle) and his endlessly put-upon carer-servant, Clov (Robert Sheehan) enact a series of daily routines and rituals that are repeated to the point of exhaustion.
