{"id":60,"date":"2017-06-29T11:15:34","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T01:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ozartsreviewonline.com\/oz\/?p=60"},"modified":"2018-06-06T11:22:46","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T01:22:46","slug":"60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ozartsreviewonline.com\/oz\/60\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Swan – State Theatre Company"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Endgame (Samuel Beckett)<\/h2>\n

State Theatre<\/h2>\n

reviewed by Neville Cohn<\/h3>\n

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Photographer – Daniel James Grant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

He\u2019s like the spirit of malevolence and bitterness: blind, marooned in a chair from which he almost never moves as he dispenses \u2013 generously \u2013 \u00a0bile and self-hatred.<\/p>\n

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He\u2019s not the sort of person anyone would willingly want to befriend. But Clov \u2013 played with masterly skill by Kelton Pell \u2013 has reserves of patience and compassion that are wildly out of proportion to the constant stream of unpleasantness that issues from Hamm.<\/p>\n

Pell is star of the production; his characterisation is wonderfully, and satisfyingly, complete. There\u2019s understated artistry in his every gesture, the slightest semi-sentence. He makes of Clov a man of angelic patience, never for a moment \u2013 not even a second \u2013 gruff, abrasive, dismissive. His every word and gesture are informed by a quietness \u2013 a calmness \u2013 that make him the very antithesis of Hamm.<\/p>\n

Clov climbs a ladder.(He never sits \u2013 anywhere, any time.) He places a foot on the first rung \u2013 and waits a while before bringing his other foot to the same rung \u2013 and so on. In a sense this typifies Clov \u2013 quiet, unhurried, gentle with a near-angelic forbearance.<\/p>\n

Despite given every reason to, \u00a0he NEVER raises his voice. There\u2019s quiet understatement to his every word \u2013 the absolute antithesis of the monstrous Hamm., \u2013 but although viscerally unpleasant, one cannot help feeling pity for this dreadfully stricken being.<\/p>\n

Hamm\u2019s handicaps are awful;\u00a0 his abrasiveness, his virtually complete lack of empathy add to the sheer unpleasantness of the man. \u00a0But \u2013 and this is the crucial question \u2013 how many others would act differently to awful Hamm in his dreadful predicament.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Who would uncomplainingly accept blindness and additional incapacity? How many would accept being weighed down by such hideous handicaps? It is so easy to be judgemental \u2013 but how many in a similarly awful \u00a0situation would act differently?<\/p>\n

Then there are Nell (Caroline McKenzie) and Nagg (George Shevtsov), both legless, each living in a bin. Although on a much smaller scale, their parts require consistent skill \u2013 and on this score, they both deliver wholesale.<\/p>\n

This is a five-star offering, much due to first rate direction by Andrew Ross.. I hope it\u2019s seen by thousands. It deserves to be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n