Endgame *** TNT

Friday 23 October 2009 17:03 GMT

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Endgame

This article was first published on tntonline.co.uk on Friday 23 October 2009 16:50 GMT. It was last updated on Friday 23 October 2009 17:03 GMT.

This isn’t the production it was originally intended to be. There are just four people in the cast of Samuel Beckett’s bleak 1957 comedy, one of whom makes a single brief appearance, whilst another has what can only be described as a supporting role. But it’s the two main characters who’ve been recast in Complicite’s energetic revival, with a rather too young Mark Rylance seated centre stage as the aged Hamm and director Simon McBurney stepping into the shoes of his crippled servant Clov.

This musing on the end of life and the deterioration of the body could be a grim affair, but the proceedings are spliced with moments of black humour, which make watching the inevitable fate of the protagonists more than palatable.

Entombed in a dingy, brick, tower-like structure, with a pair of grimy, ladder-high windows letting in the merest hint of light and the tantalising reminder of what was once a better life beyond the walls, Hamm waits for death. Stuck in a state of interdependence there’s only one way out for Hamm – though Clov still nurtures a tiny, rebellious glimmer of hope for a different existence in the wasted world outside. Cruelly ensconced in dustbins, his parents Nagg (a dog-biscuit munching Tom Hickey) and Nell (the excellent Miriam Margolyes making maximum impact as she suggestively recalls her long-faded youth) also wait for the end.

McBurney’s resentful Clov has a stiff-legged walk to emphasise his inability to sit down, whilst Rylance’s tetchy, histrionic Hamm (a bully permanently confined to his wheelchair and mole-blind behind his dark glasses) gives a masterclass in acting from the waist up. His performance doesn’t make the prospect of getting older any more appealing, but in its flamboyant variety it lightens the mood in this existential account of the human condition.

Duchess, Catherine Street, WC2B 5LA (0844 412 4659; nimaxtheatres.com) Until December 5. £20-£46