'Endgame' in sight

'ENDGAME'

- In previews; opens April 10 and runs through June 6

- Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted

- Tickets, $20-$77

- (312) 335-1650; www.steppenwolf.org

Actor William Petersen laughs as he recalls his first attempt at performing the work of Samuel Beckett, that 20th century Irish writer whose plays alternately baffle, bemuse and mesmerize both the actors who attempt to bring them to life, and the audiences who try to find their way into their spare, tragicomic mindscapes.

As Petersen recounted it: "Decades ago, when the old Remains Theatre was on Clark Street, Amy Morton and I did a production of 'Waiting for Godot' directed by Sheldon Patinkin. To begin with, Beckett wouldn't have liked the idea that Amy was playing a male character. But aside from that, the whole thing was so bad that Amy's dad offered us $200 if we agreed never to do Beckett again."

Fast forward about 30 years and Petersen is back in the Beckett game, co-starring with Ian Barford in a Steppenwolf Theatre production of "Endgame" directed by Frank Galati.

Set in a gloomy room with a pair of small, high windows, the play, first produced in 1957, homes in on the relationship between two men -- Hamm (Petersen), a blind, impotent bully unable to stand, and Clov (Barford), his younger servant, who is unable to sit. Also on stage are a ghostly but funny husband and wife pair, Nell (Martha Lavey) and Nagg (Francis Guinan), who are confined to trash bins.

"Endgame," whose title refers to the final portion of a chess game when very few pieces are left on the board, has long intrigued Galati, who, when he was still acting, played both Hamm and Clov.

"It's such a deep and timeless play that you can keep returning to it, like a great piece of music," Galati said. "You can never exhaust it, never tire of its beauties, its terrors, its melodies."

The director admits that Beckett's work, which captured a certain state of mind that emerged from the devastation of World War II and the subsequent threat of nuclear obliteration, goes in and out of favor. But he points to a resurgence of interest in recent seasons and such productions as Brian Dennehy in "Krapp's Last Tape" at the Goodman Theatre, the 2009 Broadway revival of "Godot" that starred Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin, and an acclaimed 2009 London production of "Endgame" by the Complicite company.

"When we began rehearsals, I told my actors that if I had to sum up what this play is about, I would say it was a family comedy, and that got their attention," said Galati, noting that Clov might well be Hamm's adopted child. "It's also about the tyranny of family life -- the power struggles, the bondage of love. It's a very cruel play, and a darkly funny one. As Nell says at one point: 'Nothing is funnier than unhappiness.' And the key to making it all work is to achieve the right tempo during its 75 minutes."

"We've been talking in musical terms all through rehearsals," Petersen said. "Both Hamm and Clov and Nell and Nag have their little duets. The play is a very elliptical piece that demands a whole new skill set, but it also is full of emotion because at its core it's about how people live their lives knowing they are going to die."

Barford confesses he and Petersen have often left a day of rehearsals with their heads hurting.

"I've never done Beckett before, Barford said. "There is a different kind of discipline and rigor needed to do his work. For example, I'm the only character in the show who moves, so I must be very aware of my spatial relationships to the others."

Barford added, "At times, with all its repetition and echoes, this play almost feels like a confounding mathematical problem. It's certainly not the hockey game mentality of 'August: Osage County,' in which I played for so long. I don't think Beckett wanted to leave his audience in raptures. And I don't think actors get the same kind of immediate sense of audience reaction that comes when a character shouts, 'I'm in charge now!'"

NEWS & NOTES

A CLOSER LOOK AT CHICAGO'S THEATER SCENE

ALBANY PARK SERVES UP AN INSPIRED 'FEAST'

Food is a crucial element in every culture. And cooking has always been one means by which immigrants have managed to retain some connection to the homes they left behind. So it makes perfect sense that the Albany Park Theatre Project -- whose sophisticated teen ensemble is drawn largely from the vast cultural stew of Chicago's "immigrant gateway" neighborhood -- has turned its attention to the kitchen for its latest work, "Feast," which runs tonight through April 24 at the Eugene Field House's Laura Wiley Theatre, 5100 N. Ridgeway.

Collectively created by its performers, the show is an anthology of short plays based on interviews with home cooks, restaurant owners, street vendors, grocers, butchers, fishermen, farmers and migrant workers. Along the way, as the writer-performers shopped and cooked together, and shared heirloom recipes, issues of hunger, exploitation, entrepreneurship, migration and adaptation also were brought to the table. At least four recipes are referred to during the show, too: One for tamales (whose ingredients remain a secret), two from the Philippines (a sour soup and a seafood dish), and one for a special Peruvian dessert with the lovely name of "Suspiro de Limena" ("A Woman from Lima Sighs"). It's a sort of dulce de leche topped with a port wine-flavored meringue.

Tickets: (773) 866-0875, or go to www.aptpchicago.org.

Photo: William Petersen (left) and Ian Barford star in the Steppenwolf Theatre production of Samuel Beckett's "Endgame." Photo: Frank Galati directs a rehearsal of Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" at Steppenwolf Theatre. Photo: Stephany Perez is part of the cast of "Feast."