Endgame

Text of the day: “Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. But — […] Yes, yes, it’s the most comical thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it’s always the same thing. Yes, it’s like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don’t laugh any more. [Pause.] Have you anything else to say to me?” (Nell in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame)

absurdism bleak humour comedy Endgame laughter Old Vic pessimism Samuel Beckett storytelling unhappiness