Endgame

It was one of those nights in the theatre that I will never forget:

Samuel Beckett's Endgame at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, starring John Tuturro, Max Casella, Alvin Epstein and Elaine Stritch, directed by Andrei Belgrader, had all the potential makings of theatre magic, but it was an early preview, and, as is always possible in previews, things can go wrong. Terribly wrong. And the magic that was produced on that stage by this group of actors will not happen in quite the same way again, unless fate smiles unkindly on this terrific production. Here's what happened:

Hamm (John Tuturro) is an older man confined to a chair with wheels. His servant, Clov (Max Casella) pushes the chair around the room. While doing so, one of the wheels falls off one of the chair's rear legs. In this play about a crumbling world, the moment would make sense to those who've never read the script, as would Casella's attempt to fix the wheel while continuing the action. He's not successful, and abandons the attempted fix, since the chair seems stable. Or so we hope. The show goes on.

In the middle of the play, Hamm has a monologue. Tuturro is playing it with all it's richness, delving into all of Beckett's brilliance with language. Suddenly, the chair slowly falls backwards, and smashes to the floor with Tuturro in tact. From backstage, Casella, who's playing Clov with crippled legs, hobbles as quickly as he can to Tuturro, who, miraculously, is continuing the monologue after only a brief pause. An Assistant Stage Manager rushes out to see if Tuturro is okay, but it's Hamm that they both encounter, a bit befuddled about what all the fuss is about. The two men help Hamm out of the chair, and he crawls with his arms and hands propelling him to stage center, where he simply continues the monologue! Alvin Epstein, playing Nagg, Hamm's father, had been listening to the monologue, and is peering out of his garbage can (for those unfamiliar, Hamm's parents, Nagg and Nell, live in garbage cans) at the commotion. He throws in an ad-lib, totally in character, about his son Hamm: "Serves him right!"

The ASM wheels the broken chair off-stage. The play continues with Tuturro performing from the floor, and doing so as if Beckett wrote it to be played that way. He makes it work in his favor. It's almost better this way.

Several minutes later, the ASM and Casella wheel a newly fixed chair back onto the stage. From the booth, the Stage Manager makes an announcement that the chair is now fixed. In a strange Beckett way, this "voice from God" was totally fitting, and doesn't seem to throw the actors out of character for even a second. The ASM and Casella lift Tuturro back into the chair, and the play continues. Another stage manager brings out a small step ladder that probably should've been brought out earlier, but was forgotten in the mayhem. The various stage managers exit, and the play continues, as if all of this were part and parcel of the production.

Granted, this incident will not be repeated, but what will is the dedication and the intensity that this company brings to this production.
And what can I say: to see Elaine Stitch, playing Nell, Hamm's mother, peering out of a garbage can where Nell lives, is worth the price of admission alone. It's only a cameo role, but her interaction with Alvin Epstein (another brilliant veteran actor who one rarely gets to see anymore) is touching, funny, and truly a unique way to see this actress who's normally associated with musical comedy.

I've never seen Tuturro give a performance like this before, and while I've always admired his work on screen, this stage experience established him, for me at any rate, as a truly great actor. He finds emotional and intellectual levels in the text that I hadn't seen or thought of before, nor have I encountered in any other production of Endgame. His understanding of the text, the character, the world that Beckett created, allowed him to continue in character despite an accident that may have even caused him physical pain. Casella, too, brings original insight into Clov's character, and into the bond between him and Hamm. As a result, the end of the play, bleak as it is, has an emotional resonance that's hard to escape.

BAM staged this production in their Harvey Theatre, which itself looks like it's falling apart, and the set design by Anita Stewart works the theatre's physicality into the crumbling world of the play. Wonderful costumes by Candice Donnelly and lighting by Michael Chybowski further enhanced this effect.

I'm not one who generally favors the trend to stick movie stars into classic plays in order to make money. Movie stars often don't have the training or skill to work on stage, and you're surrounded in the audience by star-struck movie fans who don't have a clue about theatre. But here's a wonderful exception to that rule, and one that's worth the money to see!
For more info, and tickets, here's a link: http://www.bam.org/events/08GAME/08GAME.aspx