By Samuel Becket
Brüka Theatre Production directed by Holly Natwora
Review by; Carol Schaye
Anyone who claims to know or understand exactly what the play, “Waiting for Godot” is about, might have taken too many drugs in the sixties.
Samuel Becket’s two act play which was originally produced in New York, on Broadway, April 19. 1956, was directed by Herbert Berghof. The cast consisted of Bert Lahr playing Estragon and EG Marshall as Vladimir, the two main characters who spend their time on a road, waiting for a fellow named Godot. Bert Lahr’s performance as Estragon, is considered a comic vaudevillian work of art.
According to director/actor Austin Pendleton who in 1978 played Estragon along with Sam Waterston’s Vladimir in a production overseen by playwright Becket and directed by his assistant Walter D. Asmus, (At the Brooklyn Academy of Music), “ I think it’s a play about two guys who are standing by the side of a road, waiting for a man named Godot. In the course of this waiting, they meet a tyrannical man and his babbling eloquent slave. And a boy who keeps telling them, every evening, that Godot will come tomorrow night. When alone with each other, these two guys pass the time by playing word games and speculating about whether to hang themselves or not. I think that’s what the play is. No more than that, but NO LESS.”
According to the Brüka Theatre’s director of Godot, Holly Natwora, it is her all-time favorite play. She says the older she gets the more she understands it.
According to Bruka Theatre’s blurb about “Waiting for Godot”
“This iconic play challenges it’s audiences to confront life’s most difficult questions while searching for meaning in a world in which nothing is certain. Written after witnessing the horrors of WWII, Beckett creates a universe in which his characters face the appalling nature of Man at his most base as they struggle with their sense of self and search for salvation from a god that may not exist.”
Playwright Beckett did say that Godot was not God. He said he would have called him God and not Godot.
Godot is sometimes called an existential work not unlike Sartre’s “No Exit” or even Chekhov’s “The Three Sisters”, where people are passing time waiting and nothing really ever happens. What they do with their time is the question. Is this play about man’s search for meaning or lack there of ?
Director Holly Natwora, says she believes the “True meaning of Godot is that compassion is the only thing that gives life meaning.” Initially, Natwora wanted to cast two women as the main characters. She had two women who were “really good clowns” in mind. Becket’s estate does not allow for that. Becket insisted, “Women do not have prostates” (A reference to one of the characters frequent trips to urinate).
Ms. Natwora said she has, “control issues” and it shows in this production. The actors are directed so tightly, their movements on stage so tightly blocked that Ms Natwora’s hand is everywhere. Godot has often been considered an actor play, almost a blank slate, which allows actors to come up with all sorts of comedic behaviors while they are waiting for Godot to show. It is a tragic/comedy. Because the play is so tightly staged the essential comedic element of Waiting is lost in this production. There is no sense that these characters are waiting for Godot, except when the lines tell us. It might have helped the actors to consider what they would be doing on the side of the road while waiting for this fellow Godot if they had no lines to say. Exploring their character’s behavior would have helped.
Some of the actors manage to save themselves in spite of the intense direction, Myron Freedman as Estragon finds all sorts of humor in the play. Freedman takes his time, and listens to the other actors but does not go for laughs. His behavior gets the laughs. Freedman has an interesting physical appearance perfect for Estragon. His work makes Estragon sympathetic to us. He is genuinely bewildered by all that is going on. I look forward to seeing Freedman work in other productions.
Chip Arnold as Vladimir is trapped by the over direction. He has chosen a physical presence that is odd, with a gaping mouth. He is screaming throughout the production. This is where a director should step in and reflect back to the actor that he is in a different play than everyone else. I don’t know if Arnold was directed to do this behavior or came up with it on his own. However, it is unnuanced, yelling.
Joel Barber is Pozzo, the cruel tyrant who walks another man on a rope (Lucky) while wielding a whip. He happens upon Vladimir and Estragon on his way to a fair. He stops to spend some time with them, eating lunch and chatting as they covet his food. Barber was right on target. He was evil incarnate but Barber does it nicely. He managed to grasp the lack of caring for the other people/characters in a spellbinding performance of narcissism. Barber also found humor in the play, which is a relief from the tedium of waiting.
The set is quite nice for a small theater space like Brüka. The lighting was terrific, giving us a sense of day passing slowly.
The Brüka Theatre is a little treasure, right in downtown Reno. Brüka lists itself as a “nonequity” (does not adhere to Actor’s Equity Union rules) professional production company. This review is based on professional production standards.
Brüka staff did not stick to social distancing for the preview I attended, letting people sit in chairs right next to each other.
I saw “Waiting for Godot” in a preview, not the actual production
CAST
Chip Arnold (Didi)
Joel Barber (Pozzo)
Jonah Altenburg (Boy)
Kai Zaumeyer Smith (Boy)
Lew Zaumeyer (Lucky)
Myron Freedman (Gogo)
This review was previously Published in the Reno News & Review
Carol Schaye has had several short stories published by McFadden’s Women’s Group, Sierra Nevada Ally and other publications. Carol has written for two west coast newspapers and has worked extensively in television. A fan of Flannery O’Connor, Carol studied acting with Lee Strasberg and Austin Pendleton and writing with Salem Ludwig. She attended Marymount College majoring in theater.
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