Endgame

The Arden theatre, located at 40 N. 2nd Street in Olde City is presenting Samuel Beckett’s Endgame on its Arcadia stage through March 12. Anyone who is familiar with Samuel Beckett knows that his work is minimalistic and open to interpretation. There are talk-backs scheduled for the end of each performance (it is a one act play and thus is not lengthy) to encourage audience members to share their interpretations about what they have seen on the stage and to have a dialogue with the assistant director and each other about the set, characters, and over-all message of Beckett’s play. The set is painted in nebulous shades of gray. Although Beckett wrote this piece over 50 years ago, the set was built to suggest a collapsed garage of the World Trade Center after 9/11 in order to give the piece a more contemporary feel and more relevancy.  The underlining structure of this story delves into people's lives; how they relate to each other after tragedy and how they unwittingly need each other. Everyone has his own story yet isn’t really listening to or perhaps isn’t able to listen to the others. Scott Greer portrays Hamm, the character who is in command although he can neither see nor move on his own  and James Ijames portrays Clov, the younger man that Hamm saved as boy . Nancy Boykin and Dan Kern, real- life husband and wife, portray Hamm’s parents who live in  trash cans.  Because Beckett’s work is frought with symbolism and so open to interpretation, it is debatable whether or not Hamm’s parents are figments of his imagination or truly exist. There are comedic moments interspersed within this bleak tale, most of them ably provided by James Ijames. For more information or tickets, call 215-922-1122 or visit online at www.ardentheatre.org.