End Game: Soulpepper 2012

So you know when you do an assignment in high school on a book, movie, historical event and you beginning to hate everything about it because of the people you work with, your teacher pressuring you or even plainly the content got boring? Well, that's how I started to dislike Beckett. It didn't have anything to with my group members or my teacher, but more of the content becoming very over extended. I had to remount an edited version of Waiting for Godot and it wasn't my favourite unit, and Samuel Beckett's work made me a little uneasy until Soulpepper presented Endgame in 2012.

I quickly fell back in love with Beckett and apologized for my quick dislike of his work thanks to Soulpepper. This piece of theatre is bleak but so full of complexity and thought. Daniel Brooks direction was absolutely fabulous and was evident from beginning to end. Diego Matamoros played Clov to Joseph Zielger's Hamm, which has probably been one of the richest relationships I've seen in theatre. Eric Peterson also graced the stage as Nagg with Maria Vacratsis' Nell. The presence was so alive in all four of them even though two of them were in a garbage can for their performance. And even when characters weren't on stage their energy was still present. 

Julie Fox's dry walled set design appears as almost like a supporting character for the cast, give such a definite texture and feel to the piece. Richard Feren’s sound design and placement and everything he did with the echoes and faint wind sounds were the cherry on the sundae.

Kelly McEvenue also worked as an Alexander Technique coach with the cast to help them endure the slanted stage and unnatural physicality. And since she's been one of my instructors at Humber it was a pleasure to hear about the process and thoughts behind the piece.

It was such an engaging piece of theatre that I would have loved to see again and again to pick up on the things I missed. It was a knock out that made me appreciate Beckett more than I ever had. 

You can get a season subscription to Soulpepper's 2013 season through their website, if you want to see fabulous productions like Endgame

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If you had a chance to see Endgame, let me know what you thought in the comments!

With love, 

Lisa Alves