Thanks to the notorious persnickety Beckett estate, adaptation and updates are out of the question in a way that has benefited other classic but difficult playwrights from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams. Thompson is a suitably commanding presence as Hamm, the blind and tyrannical figure at the center of the play.
Like the king on a chessboard, he is both at the center of the action and limited in his actual powers, confined as he is to a wheelchair. Irwin, a famed clown, uses his gift for physical comedy to great effect here, wrestling a ladder about the stage, and stutter-stepping up said ladder to swing his leg over the top run and perch himself if on a saddle as he peers out through the too-high windows that mostly offer views of brick walls.
The wonderfully gloomy set design is by Charlie Corcoran, thoughtfully lit by Michael Gottlieb. Joe Grifasi and Patrice Johnson Chevannes are brilliant in the roles, offering an elderly counterpoint to Hamm and Clov as they are aggrieved one moment and resigned the next. We never learn what has happened to the world outside to produce the current hellscape, nor exactly what has befallen our central characters.
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