Four stars
Butler University Theatre
Directed by Owen Schaub

Whether you take Beckett’s absurdist play Endgame literally or figuratively, the outlook is bleak. The action — or lack of action — takes place in a room, which is either the last refuge from a dead planet or the prison that keeps inmates from discovering a better world. Hamm is blind and unable to move, yet he acts as dictator. The subservient Clov is usually in movement, on stage and off, but incapable of refusing an order. Hamm’s decomposing parents reminisce about young love inside a set of matching garbage bins. Beckett’s telegraph: We are hopeless pawns in this life, locked in parasitic relationships, and as good as dead. So, why do we feel relieved? Is there hope in giving up, or power in letting go? Or are we convinced that we can play the game differently? Butler’s production is close to perfect, if not perfectly enjoyable. The grey-white parents are cob-web creepy. Playing Hamm, Jeff Irlbeck’s imitation of an English aristocrat is purposely grating, like a Hanna Barbera cartoon. By contrast, Michael Burke as Clov, with his weary voice and labored gait, seems wondrously natural and real. Perhaps director Owen Schaub intends to give us hope that life can be more than a game? Certainly Burke’s superior collegiate performance gives us hope for more exciting Indianapolis theater.