Endgame (Irish Repertory Theatre) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (74)
See it if you like character driven stories that upend the dynamics of power structures: familial, racial, servitude, sickness. Acting is incredible.
Don't see it if you aren’t in the mood to dissect things for yourself. Beckett’s script is brilliant, both in the spoken and unspoken. You do have to think.
See it if three great actors at the top of their game.
Don't see it if you don't like Beckett. Read more
See it if you don't mind plays where nothing happens... twice. Wait! Wrong play :) But nothing much happens, except... it's delightful!
Don't see it if you're not a Beckett fan. Read more
See it if Beckett's play,one of the greatest in contemporary theater, isn't always easy to watch.Humorous@times, it often reminds us of the profound*
Don't see it if You're either for Samuel Beckett's plays, or you're not. If you are for, then do not miss this wonderful gem from the Theatre of the Absurd. Read more
See it if you hate the idea of a COVID play but want to see theatre engage with the trauma of 2020.
Don't see it if you're looking for a good-hearted romp with a lot of traditional dramatic plot points.
See it if Watching these brilliant actors bring Beckett’s genius to life. John Douglas Thompson is a god!!! And the intimate staging is perfection.
Don't see it if You just can’t stand Beckett.
See it if Beckett's play done properly. Great acting from everyone. Simple staging but with great lighting design. Overall great production.
Don't see it if You want a fun night out type of performance. You'll probably leave the theater in despair, but in the best way. Best prep before going in.
See it if You question the point of existence. Or like Samuel Beckett. Or both.
Don't see it if You're in need of a light and frothy evening. This ain't it.
Critic Reviews (14)
CRITIC'S PICK! “The humor he built into that text, he left more space for humanness than the play’s reputation suggests.”
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“The play makes the grim assertion that, even in the worst of times, people remain stuck on their own hamster wheels of nostalgia and resentment...If we can’t break the patterns that send us hurtling toward an unlivable future, at least we can laugh at them.”
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“This new production is dismaying in its simplicity but surprising in how many laughs it finds amid the gray.”
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“One could argue the point, but certainly not while under the mesmerizing spell that Beckett’s play casts in this expert production, which is supremely funny but still cuts painfully close to the bone.”
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“Bitter is the operative word here, for ‘Endgame’ is a far more acrid depiction of end times than any apocalyptic filmic extravaganza.”
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“Beckett's plays can be quite funny, in an existentially dreadful kind of way, and ‘Endgame,’ while not a knee-slapper, has its fair share of solid laughs.”
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“Bill Irwin and John Douglas Thompson bring to Endgame something I've never known it to have: grandeur. It's a seedy grandeur, to be sure, but impressive for all of that…The pairing of a great classical actor with a wickedly inventive clown yields a kind of existential vaudeville, a knockabout comedy producing laughter with a death rattle inside it. To my mind, is the first unmissable production of 2023.”
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“To these eyes, it's a more than competent production, and if you're already partial to the author's cold emotional landscape and mystifying existential abstractions, you'll probably eat it up.”
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