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April 7, 2006
As you wait for gefilte
Godot is a perfect topic for the Passover table.
BAILA LAZARUS
In many ways, Samuel Beckett is the perfect discussion topic for
the Passover table. A member of the absurdist movement, he, along
with Harold Pinter and Edward Albee, wrote plays about the frailty
of the human condition and generated introspection about the reason
for existence.
And, like the Haggadah, Waiting for Godot is read and reread
by thousands the world over, year after year, always generating
more discussion. It is a play that has beguiled audiences, critics
and academics from the day it premièred in 1953.
Who are these two vagabonds, Estragon and Vladimir (played by Stéphane
Demers and Vincent Gale, in the Arts Club's latest adaptation of
the play)? Often compared to Cain and Abel, they sit day after day,
waiting for the never-appearing Godot. Is Godot to be thought of
as a real person – a potential employer for the two vagrants
– or as a metaphor for hope or death? And what about the oddest
of theatre pairs – Pozzo (Brian Markinson) and Lucky (Peter
Anderson), also compared to Cain and Abel? (In fact, just about
everyone in the play has been compared to the biblical brothers
at one point or another.) I think interpretations of their meaning
are generally too obscure. I've concluded that their sole purpose
is to make sure that if you didn't think you were watching a Beckett
play before their entrance, there wouldn't be any doubt in your
mind afterwards. So many questions from a play in which nothing
happens.
I reject the notion that the name "Godot" must be a reference
to a deity simply because "God" is found in the name.
The play was written in French, in which Dieu means God,
and Godot means nothing. That's not to say that Godot isn't a reference
to God; but that's a discussion best left until after the fourth
glass of wine.
According to those piles of polemic, the play originally opened
to good reviews in France, then bad reviews in London, got more
popular in London, but then bombed in Miami, did better in New York
and gradually gained acceptance as a critically acclaimed but controversial
play. I think the inconsistency of its reception is because this
is one play whose success is really dependent on the individual
viewer.
The play's genre of comedy (that was really played up in this Morris
Panych-directed version) went over incredibly well on opening night.
Apparently, two-thirds of the audience share my mother's taste in
Laurel and Hardy-style slapstick, "who's on first" routines
and Chaplinesque humor. (When Estragon eats a carrot, holding it
and nibbling like a rabbit, one wonders where the bowler-hat and
cane are.) I found it tedious; but then, I was never a big Abbot
and Costello fan.
I did enjoy the morose pessimism between the laughs, however. With
lines like, "We always find something to give us the impression
we exist," who wouldn't smile knowingly? And when Estragon
suggests they break the boredom by hanging themselves, but they
find out logistically they can't because they are different weights,
he says sadly, "We're not made for the same rope." Like
brothers sharing a sorrowful secret.
What I also liked about the play was how it immediately generated
discussion as soon as the lights came up for first intermission.
Mine went something like this: "I don't remember Vladimir's
painful peeing," my guest began, referring to another version
of the play. "Maybe it's a reference to him dying."
"Maybe it's a reference to everyone dying." "And
they're first."
"Maybe it's a comment on how it's a waste of time discussing
whether God exists."
Now doesn't that sound like a conversation you'd have around a Passover
table?
Waiting for Godot runs at the Stanley Industrial Alliance
Stage until April 23. Call 604-687-1644 for tickets.
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer, photographer and
illustrator living in Vancouver. Her work can be seen at www.orchiddesigns.net.
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