Hamm is blind and unable to stand; Clov, his servant, is unable to sit; Nagg and Nell are his father and mother, who are legless and live in dustbins. Together they live in a room with two windows, but there may be nothing at all outside.

Hamm (Sir Michael Gambon) and his parents, Nagg (Charles Simon) and Nell (Jean Anderson), live neccessarily sedentary lives while Clov (David Thewlis) cannot stop moving and gets them things, or offers to get them when they are not there to get. Clov wants to leave after Nagg and Nell die, but apparently there is nowhere to go.—Scott Andrew Hutchins <[email protected]>