End Game
Strangest play ever. Just got done reading it. However, its also one of those plays that makes no sense, is disturbing even though nothing really happens, but yet its very intriguing and almost profound in a few parts. Its like Novel version Alice in Wonderland gibberish meets David Lynch ambiguity.
Its hinted that the story takes place in a sort of post-nuclear, post-apocalyptic setting (though apparently Samuel Beckett, the playwright denies this). Everything is a wasteland. There doesnt seem to be anyone left besides the 4 characters that are named, all living together in a house near the ocean. The sky is gray all of the time, and the even the tides seem to have stoped. Basically, this family plus one are all going insane and each one of them has some sort of handicap that limits them and forces them to rely on the others. Hamm, the son and the protagonist, is in a wheelchair and is blind. His parents, Nagg and Nell, are both in Ash bins because they have no legs. One is slowly going deaf, the other slowly going blind. Then there's Clov who is unable to sit down and is basically the slave of Hamm, who took him in a long time ago, before the play begins. The entire play is one act and takes place in the same house, in the same room. Most of the action is between Clov and Hamm with Hamm ordering Clov around and Clov threatening always to leave him but also acknowledging that he never does and always follows orders. Through the exchanges between everyone, you see how far gone everyone is due to the solitude of their surroundings and the repetition of limited activities each day and that its only getting worse with food running out and everyone slowly loosing things that allow them to function properly.
Things like that aren't everyone's cup of tea, I know. But they have always interested me on a psychological level. I like trying to understand the writer or trying to make sense of what he or she has put down. Even if its weird, confusing, and dark, there's ALWAYS a meaning. I like trying to decipher it. Then, if I do, or I think I have, its fun to see if that meaning even makes sense to me. If it does, then great. I look at the piece much differently. If it doesn't, then I like trying to figure out what it might have meant to the writer, or how others might interpret it; what the meaning means to them and whether or not it makes sense to them.
Its also a great excercise in practicing the slowly dieing art of accepting things even if you can't understand them.
Oh! Also, there's a film called End Game and it has nothing to do with the play. So don't confuse yourself even more if you choose to read the play. There are free copies online.
Its hinted that the story takes place in a sort of post-nuclear, post-apocalyptic setting (though apparently Samuel Beckett, the playwright denies this). Everything is a wasteland. There doesnt seem to be anyone left besides the 4 characters that are named, all living together in a house near the ocean. The sky is gray all of the time, and the even the tides seem to have stoped. Basically, this family plus one are all going insane and each one of them has some sort of handicap that limits them and forces them to rely on the others. Hamm, the son and the protagonist, is in a wheelchair and is blind. His parents, Nagg and Nell, are both in Ash bins because they have no legs. One is slowly going deaf, the other slowly going blind. Then there's Clov who is unable to sit down and is basically the slave of Hamm, who took him in a long time ago, before the play begins. The entire play is one act and takes place in the same house, in the same room. Most of the action is between Clov and Hamm with Hamm ordering Clov around and Clov threatening always to leave him but also acknowledging that he never does and always follows orders. Through the exchanges between everyone, you see how far gone everyone is due to the solitude of their surroundings and the repetition of limited activities each day and that its only getting worse with food running out and everyone slowly loosing things that allow them to function properly.
Things like that aren't everyone's cup of tea, I know. But they have always interested me on a psychological level. I like trying to understand the writer or trying to make sense of what he or she has put down. Even if its weird, confusing, and dark, there's ALWAYS a meaning. I like trying to decipher it. Then, if I do, or I think I have, its fun to see if that meaning even makes sense to me. If it does, then great. I look at the piece much differently. If it doesn't, then I like trying to figure out what it might have meant to the writer, or how others might interpret it; what the meaning means to them and whether or not it makes sense to them.
Its also a great excercise in practicing the slowly dieing art of accepting things even if you can't understand them.
Oh! Also, there's a film called End Game and it has nothing to do with the play. So don't confuse yourself even more if you choose to read the play. There are free copies online.