Reviews

Endgame is Barrymore Recommended!

A few thoughts from Barrymore Nominators who experienced Endgame on opening weekend:

"Endgame was a fantastic depiction of the human condition. John Zak and David Bardeen struck the perfect blend of humor and devastation. Their characterizations were rich and powerful. Truly a relevant play for our times."

"IRC's Endgame fearlessly leans into the hilarity and grotesqueness of the end of life, allowing us to laugh at the absurdity of human existence and reflect on what we owe to one another as human beings. Tina Ann Brock clearly has a great sense of this play's timelessness, and allows it to shine without attempting to unnecessarily "update" it for a contemporary audience."

"The performances and direction of this classic Beckett play created a powerful and timely piece of theatre."

"Humanity on the brink of extinction. No, not today’s news but Beckett’s Endgame is handled with top notch directing and a brilliant cast."

Broad Street Review:

The editor’s guide to the 2026 Philly Fringe

by Alaina Johns

Sep 02, 2026

Endgame by Samuel Beckett

“Endgame perfects the unity of form and content: four survivors of an unknown catastrophe—a man who can’t sit down, a man who can’t stand up, and two amputees in trash cans—perform an endless cycle of meaningless rituals as they await the end.” Endgame was my favorite Beckett back when I was getting my theater degree, so I want to catch this show by the consistently fine Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium.

MY REVIEW: You can call me a philistine, but Beckett and some of the other absurdist masters are always a hard sit for me. I try to take some in every once in awhile, though, so I don’t become too baked in my own preferences. In the case of this production, I’m glad I went.

As director Tina Ann Brock says in her playbill note, wondering what Beckett would be writing if he was alive today, “What words and filled silences could he possibly find for his characters to illustrate the existential peril of the current moment?” This play about a strange family in some kind of post-apocalyptic bunker does hit a bit different in America in 2026, and some of the lines take on even sharper meaning. Even if you struggle with Beckett, there are plenty of arresting flares of language and character to enjoy in this play, plus dark laughs.

Tydell Williams’s lights conspire with set designer Erica Hoelscher’s boxy basement to create constantly absorbing textures out of faux concrete (Hoelscher, Brock, and Bob Schmidt are all credited with the set painting), and when the lights dim, they draw us soberly in.

Brock and Schmidt play the piteously funny Nell and Nagg. David Bardeen brings gravelly, lugubrious savor to Hamm, and John Zak, his face powdered white, brings ghoulish glee and sadness to their mysterious butler Clov. Each gives a wonderful physical performance (especially notable for the three almost totally stationary characters), from Zak scaling a ladder with his bad leg to fingers creeping out from a trashcan lid.

It’s worth noting how many hats Brock is wearing at IRC: an artistic director who regularly acts and directs, and has design and construction credits as well (here, costumes, painting, and props, with Hoelscher and Schmidt). She’s the marketing/PR director and on the board of directors, too. Sometimes it spells trouble when one person wears too many hats, even in nonprofit life where it’s usually inevitable, but she’s a true artist at every level, and her passion and talent are instrumental to IRC.

Director's Notes

September 2026

Welcome.

"The great paradox of human life is that our mortality is the fulcrum of our search for meaning — the yearning to make this brief lungful of life matter amid the breathless void of space and time — and yet we spend our lives obviating the fact that we are mortal. If we are lucky enough, if we are lucid enough, it may take us less than a lifetime to learn that to deny death is to deny life."

 --Maria Popova, Founder and writer behind the cultural website The Marginalian

Rilke knew this: “Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love,” he wrote.

I wondered often this summer what plays Samuel Beckett would be penning if he were alive. What words and filled silences could he possibly find for his characters to illustrate the existential peril of the current moment?

Directing this wonderful cast for the last three months has served as a life raft, an emotional rescue effort -- a getaway vacation to a comforting, structured world where Beckett provided clear instruction and roadmap for performance. Many thanks to David, John and Bob for their talent, and for the thoughtful conversation and friendship our rehearsals provided. We tackledan ample agenda of life's burning questions, including the complications of relationships, love, attachment, creativity, family.

This rehearsal process has resonated in ways unlike in years past: we are 20 years out from the IRC’s maiden production, and the world is in a very different place than when we started. Beckett’s beauty resonates differently this year.

We appreciate you taking time to gather with us tonight.

Tina Ann Brock

Producing Artistic Director