Kimberly Shepherd Photo
Dennehy and Cathey in rehearsal.
The man in the chair can’t stand up. The man nearby, standing up, can’t sit down. They can’t go outside. There’s nothing there.
In the room with them are two trash cans. None of them leave. Can’t or won’t, it’s unclear. But they don’t.
All they really have are their words. And from the pen of Samuel Beckett, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright, novelist, theater director, and poet, what words they are.
Some would say Beckett’s style is austere. He’s considered absurdist. Christine Scarfuto, the Long Wharf Theatre’s literary manager, who served as dramaturg for the theater’s production of Beckett’s Endgame, which opens Jan. 5, has another word for it: essential.
What happens, she asked, when the love and painkillers, all of nature and sugarplums, are all gone? “And you’re left to ask, ‘what am I here for? What does it mean?’” And how do you make sure you serve the comedy? Because as Beckett himself said, “nothing is funnier than unhappiness.”
Crafting a production that encompasses as much as possible of what Endgame can be — its comedy and its tragedy — has been at the heart of the Gordon Edelstein-directed production.
Edelstein, according to Scarfuto, is a “huge Beckett fan,” so much so that he directed a production of Waiting for Godot in the ninth grade. Regarding the staging of Endgame, “he’s been trying to make it happen for the past 10 years,” Scarfuto said. He was just waiting for the right cast.
Apparently, that cast arrived. Brian Dennehy will assume the chair as Hamm; Reg E. Cathey will remain on his feet as Clov. Lynn Cohen and Joe Grifasi, will take their places in the trash cans as Nell and Nagg, respectively. All of them are seasoned veterans of stage and film. “It’s a lesson in the last 50 years of American theater every day,” Scarfuto said.
Brian Slattery Photo
Scarfuto.
Together, cast and crew have been diving into Endgame. They’ve found challenges. Usually there’s a backstory for the actors to develop for their characters. “What’s my history?” they ask. The answers inform and enrich the actors’ performances.
But in Endgame, Scarfuto said, there is no history beyond the text of the play, the things the characters say to each other. To “act what is there — just taking the play at its word — is a very different exercise,” she said. “Though I have to say our actors have taken to it with great gusto.”
Because, true to Beckett’s reputation, in paring his dramas to the last bone, what he cuts away in terms of satisfying actors’ (and audiences’) typical expectations, he makes up for in the richness of the script.
“Beckett’s language is so stripped down but so meaningful,” Scarfuto said. “Every exchange has weight.” The play’s title suggests the end of a chess game, and sure enough, “for every move, there is a counter move.”
In developing the production, “the biggest revelations were in unpacking each moment — what are they really saying? Why is the pause there? What makes this day different for the characters?” As rehearsals continue, Edelstein, Scarfuto, and the actors are still digging, and Endgame is still yielding more.
“You can tell it’s a masterpiece,” Scarfuto said, “because the closer you look at it, the more beautiful it becomes.”
Samuel Beckett’s Endgame runs at Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargeant Dr., from Jan. 5 to Feb. 5. Click here for tickets and more information.