Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre will open their production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame next month. The production is directed by ensemble member Frank Galati, and perhaps appropriately will be opening on April first. Steppenwolf is one of Chicago’s premiere theatre companies and is part of what makes it one of the nation’s more prominent theatre towns. Tourists who visit the city are well aware of at least three things about Chicago before they arrive there. These three elements are not in any particular order but include the fact that the city offers some great blues and jazz in numerous clubs, it also offers some great theatre and is located on Lake Michigan. Of course there are a great number of other major cultural attractions, landmarks and social aspects and some of the Chicago tourists may be more aware of some than others, but the city’s general reputation contains those three ingredients.

Endgame is one of Beckett’s better-known plays, though Waiting for Godot is probably is most famous. Both of these plays are considered to be among his most important and definitive works. It is a one-act play and contains only four characters. The title refers to the final moments in a game of chess when there are just a few pieces left on the table and only a few possible outcomes. Beckett was one of the writers of absurdist dramas and typical to the genre, this play has many possible interpretations. Critic Harold Bloom makes the argument that one of the main characters, Hamm, is a reference to the Shakespearean Hamlet and associates the one of the play’s lines to the tragic prince’s to be or not to be speech. This alludes to the static nature of the main character’s behaviors and state of existence. There is almost no action in the play the circumstances in each of the characters’ lives continue to remain the same day after day. The play is scheduled to run at Steppenwolf through the sixth of June.

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