Final, In-Person Performances Of Irish Rep’s ‘Endgame’ To Be Livestreamed Worldwide

The final, four, in-person, sold-out performances of Irish Repertory Theatre’s production of Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame” will be livestreamed worldwide.

The performances will take place on Friday and Saturday evenings April 14 and 15 and Saturday and Sunday afternoons April 15 and 16.

Beckett, a Nobel Prize winner, considered “Endgame” his favorite play, according to Irish Rep. Calling it a “tragicomedy of epic proportions, written in a macabre intensity of mood, it represents the playwright’s fierce declaration of oblivion in a world populated with its last survivors. The play about the end of everything moves inexorably to its own conclusion, with its own humor bursting out of the bounds of Beckett’s dark account of the Earth’s last whimper,” Irish Rep said.

The play, New York-based Irish Rep added, “tells the story of Hamm, who is reduced to living in one room, in which he sits, blind and chair-bound. His only escape from his solitary world is the company of his aging, legless parents, who live in garbage bins, and his shuffling servant, Clov, who is at his beck and call, and who, like a dog, comes when whistled for. The only thing left for Hamm is to wait for the inevitable end.”

Featured in Irish Rep’s production of the play—its second, its first was in 2005—are Bill Irwin as Clov, John Douglas Thompson as Hamm, and Joe Grifasi and Patrice Johnson Chevannes as Hamm’s parents.

Ciaran O’Reilly, producing director of Irish Rep and director of “Endgame,” said that New Yorkers’ opening the windows of their homes at 7 p.m. and banging pots to thank first responders for their help at the beginning of the pandemic reminded him of “Endgame.” In Irish Rep’s production, he added, “some primal wound is being exposed on stage each night. So many people relate to it.”

Irwin called the play “a random series of one-liners,” noting that it “has more to do with family than anything else.”

Thompson said he considered “Endgame” to be “the perfect play for now,” noting that it “feels like a love story in a way. It relates to the aspect of love amongst family members. Family and Covid make the play resonate. It’s the right play for this time.”

He also said Irish Rep’s audiences bring “randomness and abstraction” to “Endgame,” eliciting “as many responses as there are people.”

Irwin, who has starred in six productions of Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” said he had been “afraid” of “Endgame,” which is “why this foray is so important to me. It got me off the dime, I wasn’t being fair to the play, I wasn’t opening my mind. I’ve never been so sad for a play to close. It’s been a great gig.”

Earlier in the pandemic Irish Rep filmed many productions and presented the films to audiences online; the livestreams of its upcoming, final, in-person performances of “Endgame” will be its first actual livestreams.

O’Reilly said the livestreams will allow “everybody in other parts of the world” to see this production.