Endgame is the story of Hamm, who is blind and cannot stand, and Clov, who can shuffle but cannot sit. Together, these two characters play out a vaudevillian routine of repetitive sorrow as they await the inevitable end to their diminishing lives.
The play is the perfect metaphor for living each day with Parkinson’s disease.
But being Beckett, it’s also hilarious. Irony courses through the sadness; surprising wordplay and improbable gags keep the tone tragicomic.
Beckett’s comedy draws us into the drama, letting us sympathize with his idiosyncratic but utterly knowable characters.
In Endgame, Beckett says, “There’s nothing funnier than unhappiness!” Me To Play proves him right.