ENDGAME by Samuel Beckett at The Catastrophic Theatre

“You’re on earth. There’s no cure for that.”

An apocalypse has engulfed the world outside. A single interior stands shelter to the blind tyrant Hamm, his weary attendant Clov, and Hamm’s parents Nagg and Nell. 

Hamm is paralyzed from the waist down; he can’t stand up. Clov suffers from crippling pains in his legs; he can’t sit down. Consigned to garbage bins filled with sand, Nagg and Nell have no legs at all. Each suffers and each persists, epitomizing the famous Beckett line: “You must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”

As in the chess metaphor from which the play derives its title, Hamm and Clov carry out a series of repetitive routines, day after punishing day, senselessly moving pieces around the board of a game whose outcome is predetermined. 

Nobody does tragicomedy like Samuel Beckett. A central line from the play, “Nothing is funnier than unhappiness,” practically defines the genre.

Since 1995, Catastrophic has been the only local producer of Samuel Beckett’s full-length works and Jason Nodler their only director. We return to the play nearest to the playwright’s heart, 30 years after we first produced it.

The 30th anniversary production stars Greg Dean, Luis Galindo, Jeff Miller, and Julia Oppenheim.

Directed by Jason Nodler.

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“Catastrophic Theatre’s stark, unflinching production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame demonstrates exactly why this company and its artistic director Jason Nodler are so important to the city’s cultural life.” – Houston Chronicle

September 19 - October 11 at MATCH