Endgame by Samuel Beckett. Short summary

5 seconds

Blind cripple Hamm lives with servant Clove, who constantly wants to leave. The unfortunate man’s parents live in a dumpster. The characters joke around all the time and prepare for the big event. «It will be over soon,» they say.

1 minute

Actors: Hamm, blind and unable to stand, and his servant Clove. Nugg and Nell are Hamm’s parents. They have no legs and live in a dump. Clove enters the dark hut and begins to prepare his master for the special day. He removes the bloody bandage from his head and jokes about it in the process. They talk about how it will soon be over. Although there is no specific definition of what they are talking about.

In the middle of the scene, the hero’s parents appear. Nugg and Nell are living in dumpsters. Hamm treats them indulgently, but also makes sarcastic comments. The mother and father still retain a share of humor in their interactions with each other and their son. Hamm tells him that he is writing a story. In the story, a man crawls to the narrator on his stomach and begs for food for his son.

Clovv jokingly says he wants to leave his master. But immediately makes it clear that there is nowhere to go. By the end of the play, the servant tries to keep his promise, but remains standing at the end of the room. To which Hamm reasons that although Clove has left, the audience remains.