"Nothing is funnier than unhappiness... 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."

Those words form the heart, if it can be called such, of Samuel Beckett's Endgame: comedy of despair. Laughter within, around, and against the darkness. The comfort of the familiar, held steadfastly against the oppressive, encroaching unknown.

Endgame is, in many ways, a perfectly chosen second stage production for TLT. Set against Noises Off, an energetic, large-production farce, full of blatant jokes and a forward-moving plot, Endgame provides a small-scale, thoughtful counterpoint.

Read the full review here.

[Tacoma Little Theatre, Endgame, through April 22, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, $10-$15, 210 North I Street, Tacoma, 253.272.2281]