By Samuel Beckett
Cleveland Play House
"displays a deep understanding of Beckett's bleak yet hopelessly comical view of humanity."—Christine Howe, The Plain Dealer
Saidpour's direction of Endgame, blended elements of high art and physical comedy—as if the Book of Genesis, Dante, Bosch, or Bruegel was played by Chaplin, Harpo, or Keaton.
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The production took its vital rhythm and actions from vaudevilles and cabaret acts while drawing its visual compositions from the high art of painting. Clov's physical actions—his shuffling and clunking walk—were Chaplinesque while his actions owed much to circus clowns or evoked Harpo Marx. Certain images recalled Rembrandt's portraits against a dark background or the grotesque images of Hieronymus Bosch and Bruegel the Elder so that the aesthetics of painting was consciously at work.
"You will rarely see [Beckett] performed with such brio. Director Saidpour has found the perfect role model for each character. Terence Cranendonk whimsically plays the beleaguered Clov in the manner of Boris Karloff performing the monster mash—endearingly gruesome. George Roth is equally effective, in sun glasses and Harpo wig, playing Hamm… Dorothy Silver plays with the melancholy yet elegant woe of an El Greco Madonna. And as her garbage-can husband, Mark Seven evokes the ruined grandeur of a Rembrandt beggar.—Keith Joseph, Eunuch in the Harem.
