July 2010
By: wirthwoman
Edited by: Marcy

I made my annual trip to Stockbridge last weekend to see Randy in Endgame at the Unicorn Theatre. Since I hadn't expected to like Waiting for Godot and found it very entertaining, I was hoping Beckett's Endgame would be just as enjoyable. Sadly, for me, it was not. I just don't like Beckett and this play was tedious for me and I found my mind wandering no matter how hard I tried to engage in the play. I lost whole segments of dialogue due to inattention and boredom. Both Clov and Hamm's characters were fairly interesting to watch the first time, not knowing what to expect, but having once seen the outcome which left me cold, the following two viewings were deadly dull.

The saving grace was Randy as Nagg and he was incredible portraying a very frail old man in a nightcap with few teeth. His voice, his facial expressions and his tremulous hand as he tried to knock on Nell's can to summon her were so real that if you didn't know what a young and able man was beneath the powdered face, you would have been greatly surprised to see him emerge after the play. Both he and Nell were only seen from the neck up except when Nagg reached out to Nell. Seeing their feeble white hands appear on the rim of the cans as they lifted their lids and emerged was reminiscent of Kilroy.

Randy's part is quite small but he makes the most of his time above the stage. He begs for his pap but is given a biscuit to suck on. He reminisces with Nell about their courtship then proceeds to tell her an oft-told story about a tailor making him a pair of trousers in which he speaks both parts which to delightful to watch. Midway through the tale he says that he's told it better but continues anyway. It's very funny and he enjoys it much more than Nell who has heard it many times. At one point he asks Nell to scratch his back and she tells him to rub it on the rim of the can but he tells her he wants it rubbed lower and they share an intimate chuckle. They reach out to each other for a kiss but they can't touch. Nell is very weak and later Clov reports that she is dead after peering into her can. He tells Hamm that Nagg is weeping. There are several times that Clov pushes both Nagg and Nell back into their cans and puts the lid on.

Later in the play, Hamm summons Nagg to hear a story by promising him a sugar plum. I could never concentrate on Hamm's tale because I was watching Randy's expressions as it unfolded. At another point, Clov, Hamm and Nagg pray and Randy's mime of praying is a hoot. Clov is the only one of the four characters to be mobile as Hamm is confined to a wheelchair and his shuffling around the stage following orders from Hamm is funny. He spends a lot of time moving a ladder between two windows, opening the drapes, peering out and reporting what he sees.

When the cast takes their bows, Randy and Tanya stand up in their cans and then climb out to exit the stage. Randy is wearing a cream colored pair of pajamas and he is barefoot. Being curious about the cans, I went up to the stage as the audience was filing out and peered into them because I wondered how deep they were. They are only as deep as the stage from the floor. I saw pillows and some food containers and a book, The Shack. My impression was that while not on their knees with their heads out of the cans, they are prone. Tanya confirmed at the after party that they get in the space 20 minutes before the play begins and she is the one reading The Shack. I had thought they might have a way to enter and exit from backstage but they spend the whole play under the stage in the confined space. I was also curious about Hamm because as you are filing into the theatre there is a wheelchair covered with a sheet from which Hamm is unveiled about 5 minutes into the play. Mark told me that he is sitting there under the sheet the whole time and running his lines in his head. He never moves because I watched him and the sheet only flutters a bit.

It was a big disappointment to the few fans, I'd say a dozen at the most, that Randy did not attend the after party on Saturday. The venue was small and with only four in the cast, it was very noticeable that he was not there. This is usually the one time that you can be assured to get a moment of his time as he frequently disappears after his performances. The audience was surprisingly devoid of the fans who usually attend the opening and I wondered whether it was the Beckett play, the small role he had or that his fan base is dwindling. A good portion of the audience were a busload of MCLA students/instructors according to Kate Maguire. I noticed several people from both sides of the back of the theatre leaving early on in the play which was distracting. I heard several fans say that they wouldn't be traveling that far to see him if he wasn't going to attend the after party and that's a shame. I do think that since it was obvious that those who were hanging around with programs and cameras were waiting for Randy that someone from the BTF staff could have advised us that he was long gone. I like to see him at least once to tell him that I enjoyed his performance or ask a question about it but I don't ask for autographs anymore.

I fully expected Randy not to show up for the talk back either but the whole cast was there including Kate Maguire and Eric Hill, the director. Eric did most of the talking though Mark Corkins (Hamm) and David Chandler (Clov) both expounded on their roles. No one asked a question about or to Randy and Tanya so they didn't speak. Randy did smile and laugh a lot during the discussion. He looked so young in a tee, shorts and flip-flops that anyone who didn't know him would have been surprised to see what a cute young man played Nagg. He made a beeline for backstage as soon as the play was over but one woman caught him at the stage and he talked to her and a couple of fans for a few moments. When we left the theatre he was standing in the field next to the parking lot and signing a few autographs and taking a few pictures. He did thank everyone for coming. I did get to tell him I thought he made a wonderful old man and since I only have a picture with him from back when he was in Equus, I asked if I could take one with him and he obliged. Who knows when I will even see him again other than on stage.

Though this play was my least favorite of all his plays, I can't fault his performance and I will continue to go to any play that I can even if I never get a chance to talk to him again. Besides I love my annual Berkshire trip.



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Written by wirthwoman and edited by Marcy