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Waiting
and Waiting and Waiting "Nothing to be done," said Estragon. Thus begins Samuel Beckett's play Waiting For Godot. The two tramps Estragon and Vladimir are old men with a childlike dependency on each other. On a stage empty save for a withered tree and a mound of earth, Gogo and Didi meet each day waiting for a man named Godot. When Godot arrives, all will be explained. In the meantime, there is nothing to be done but wait. The pair pass time with absurd conversations and metaphysical musings about hell and suffering. Gogo says, "Everything oozes. It's never the same pus from one second to the next." Gogo has tired of life and wants to "go," but there is nowhere to go and nothing to do. This backdrop of hopelessness elevates the pair's comic routines to a tragic commentary on life itself. Each scene and character only serve to further underline the disjointed nature of the play, in which the plot is based around nothing actually happening. Rather than bringing the audience on a journey through a storyline, Waiting for Godot is more a sketch of characters, an examination of the human condition. Michael Scott embodies Estragon's fractured mental figure, allowing us to see brief moments of happiness as he verbally jousts with Vladimir, despair as he battles nightmarish visions, and his helplessness in the face of life's demands. Vladimir is expertly portrayed by Michael P. Watkins, who never loses his demeanor of amusement even as he talks Gogo out of hanging himself. A wealthy, neurotic man-of-the-world, Pozzo, brilliantly executed by Steve Mandell, passes by with his broken-down slave Lucky tied up with rope. Richard Leebrick elicits a huge emotional response as the drooling slave. He doesn't speak, but carries Pozzo's belongings in abject silence, only responding when Pozzo whips him. When Lucky is commanded to "think," he spouts gibberish. Pozzo arrives again the next evening, claiming to be blind, with no recollection of the previous meeting. Though much of the dialogue may be opaque to audiences, the actors come across as if they fervently believe and understand all of it. The only other character is a young boy, innocently portrayed by Elena Stylos. Each day, the boy brings Estragon and Vladimir a message from Godot that says he will not be coming today after all, but surely will arrive tomorrow. It seems reasonable to assume that Godot represents God's promise of salvation. Perhaps Lucky represents the drudgery of habit, while Pozzo symbolizes man's inescapable cruelty. Beckett isn't telling anyone what to think, he merely reminds us that death is our only birthright. When the play debuted in Paris in 1953, critics trounced it as gloomy pointlessness and predicted the death of theater if his minimalist philosophy became popular. Now, the play is recognized as a touchstone in modern theater, performed the world over. Waiting For Godot runs March 3-5 and 9-12 at Very Little Theatre. For tickets and more info call 344-7751 or log on to www.thevlt.com
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