HOME, Manchester

IN A world consumed by war, destruction, cruelty and homelessness, with millions of destitute souls wandering the earth searching for a little humanity, you may well wonder about the meaning of life.

No surprise, then, that Samuel Beckett’s dystopian nightmare Endgame has a modern resonance.

Difficult, dark and bitter, it's a play riddled with existential angst — an extremely disturbing work.

Having witnessed the horrors of the second world war, which not only exposed the depths of human cruelty but also the threat of nuclear annihilation, Beckett’s genius distills this potential calamity into a domestic parable.

Beckett’s main characters are the old, curmudgeonly Hamm, a blind curmudgeon who's confined to a rickety wheelchair and wholly dependent on his servant Clov.

The latter is losing his sight and struggling with a withered and twisted leg, which may or may not have been inflicted by his master’s beatings.

The couple’s existence is fuelled by hatred and a ritual of pointlessarguments and banal routine has become their life.

Holed up in one room that is so bleak it makes the most austere prison cell seem palatial, they berate each other with mind-numbing tosh.

The only grain of humanity is shown by Hamm’s parents — literally confined to the dustbins — as they reflect on a past which contained at least a few rays of sunlight.

This may appear incredibly depressing but, though not a comfortable watch, Endgame is certainly thought-provoking and Beckett’s unpredictable use of language is startling.

David Neilson and Chris Gascoyne are terrific as the odd couple whose mutual dependence will inevitably lead to their mutual destruction.

Tom Piper’s excellent design creates an apocalyptic world confined to a small, cold room and director Dominic Hill’s light touch allows the two actors the freedom to immerse themselves in Beckett’s astonishing words.

Like the art of Marcel Duchamp or the films of Luis Bunuel, Beckett's work makes us think about the world and, hopefully, provokes us to question and challenge accepted norms so that ultimately we can discover our real humanity and help us construct a more meaningful and positive existence.

Runs until March 12, box office: homemcr.org

Review by Paul Foley