Endgame' returns to Malayalam stage

Special correspondent

KOCHI: Samuel Beckett's seminal play, ‘Endgame' is all set to make a much-desired comeback to Malayalam theatre. ‘Kadassikkali', an adaptation of the play in Malayalam, will be staged jointly by Lokadharmi centre for theatre training, research and performance, and the Centre for Heritage Environment and Development (C-HED) at the Town Hall here on June 30 at 7 p.m.

The Malayalam production is directed by Jithu Johny, a post-graduate student of theatre at the Sree Sankara University of Sanskrit in Kalady. Chandradasan, Lokadharmi director and eminent theatre activist, will don the lead role in the play. Actors Asha Devi, Sudheer Babu and Sijin Sukumar will also act in the play.

The one-act play, from the stable of the theatre of the absurd, problematises life's continuity and questions the meaning of familial bonds. It presents four physically-challenged people who are mutually dependent, but caught in an endless, bitter verbal duel. As in Beckett's other plays, stasis or stagnation in life forms a major theme in ‘Endgame' as well. The actions on stage are repetitive, almost ritualistic, reiterating Beckett's ‘habit is a great deadener' philosophy.

Written in the aftermath of the World War II that ended with a terrible nuclear tragedy, ‘Endgame' portends a life — read post-nuclear life — sans surprises. Even the death of a character fails to shock anyone. From their rants on stage, it appears to the audience that the characters shared a past, but a cheerful future doesn't appear to dawn for them. Its isolated setting points to a life without a social, cultural and environmental milieu

Courtesy: The Hindu daily 13th June 2011