Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...Trying to interpret Samuel Beckett's absurdist classic “Endgame,” the subject of the latest Steppenwolf Theatre production to star the new and very game ensemble member William Petersen, is both an irresistibly juicy exercise of the mind and a total fool's game."
Chicago Reader
- Somewhat Recommended
"...All of this is interesting and fun to think about, and I feel indebted to Galati for this juicy, suggestive staging. At once irreverent and utterly serious, Galati—with a great assist from Schuette, who also designed the costumes—has created a sort of theatrical particle accelerator that allows all the charged bits of implication in this masterpiece to run up against one another and explode. Or would, if he could get it moving right. The show never achieves the velocity it should because Petersen isn't the Hamm, or ham, he needs to be."
Windy City Times
- Recommended
"...Director Frank Galati and his all-star cast convey Endgame's hidden-picture of a story ( You must let your figurative eyes de-focus an d relax. Only then, as in hidden picture images within images, does the drama make itself obvious. ) with grace, depth and intelligence. And — all-importantly — a level of humanity that allows the audience to truly feel for these trapped souls even when it can't figure out precisely what in hell (are they in hell?) talking about."
Copley News Service
- Recommended
"...Yes, Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame” is bleak, pessimistic, and dramatically inert. But at the Steppenwolf Theatre, the play is surprisingly accessible. What the drama means is anyone’s guess, but audiences should have no problem following the 75-moinute play from moment to moment."
Centerstage
- Recommended
"...Steppenwolf's absorbing, consummately well-timed and visually exciting production brought the laughs, but it never jolted me out of my comfort zone. The play's move towards the death of conversation feels a little too comfortable, even just a smidge complacent. Still, I left the theater with Beckett's mordant, poetic lines buzzing in my ears, a testament to the company's strength, as well as the play's."
Chicago Stage Review
- Highly Recommended
"...Steppenwolf Theatre challenges its audience with this incongruous classic but the pay-off is well worth the investment of tuning out the obvious and plugging into the absurd. Don’t miss this remarkably unique production."
Time Out Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...
This passage between Guinan and Lavey is perhaps the most affecting of Galati’s honest, straightforward production (no Akalaitis-like showmanship here). As Hamm, Petersen acknowledges the suggestion of his character’s name without overdoing it, exercising his range in ways that neither his TV years nor his recent outings in The Seafarer and Blackbird allowed. And Barford skillfully drives the action as the put-upon Clov. Galati and his actors sparingly find the sweet spot between dark humor and simple darkness; if you leave without contemplating your own eventual end, you haven’t been paying attention."
ShowBizChicago
- Highly Recommended
"...The most effectualizing of Galati’s concepts is his permissive approach to Beckett’s text. A longtime adherent of the playwright’s work, Galati defers to the osteology that has always maintained Endgame, actor and lyric. Few elements of the current Steppenwolf production serve to refract or revive, but instead expound upon the scaffolding that has exists implicitly in the work. Ultimately is the questions and ideations that preside, seducing its audience to pose its own quandaries of life, death, and everything that exists in between."
ChicagoCritic
- Highly Recommended
"...If you have had previous reservations or prejudices regarding the work of Samuel Beckett, this is your chance to see him in a new light. This is far and away the most accessible production of a Beckett play I have ever had the pleasure to experience, and one that I feel should be attended by anyone who has always wondered why Samuel Beckett is one of the greatest playwrights of all time. You may not fully understand what happens, but there’s a pretty darn good chance you’ll walk away moved."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Recommended
"...If you are into Beckett, you will get more out of this production than the average theater patron. You will understand that he is taking us through the day with this family and how both Hamm and Clov work the board to move closer to their reward. Can we make sense of our lives and what takes place? How much control do we really have in our fate and destiny? The very clever and profound Beckett takes us on a journey that may cause you to re-examine your own life. One of the best lines in this play is stated by Nell, who has very few, but understand that Ms. Lavey can make one line a lasting and meaningful memory. The line is "nothing is funnier than unhappiness" and after close examination, this may have been Beckett's point."
Chicago Theater Beat
- Highly Recommended
"...Galati clearly knows this game. However, the production seems to favor the philosopher Beckett instead of the clown. While this forces us to contemplate our own mortality (isn’t this everyone’s ideal Friday night plan?), everything gets a little too mired in the existential muck. As bleak as it is, though, there is a ton of genius at work over at the Steppenwolf right now. It is well worth a glimpse, even if you also have to stare at your own imminent demise."
