-
- Among the problems encountered opening night
was a technological glitch that knocked out the air conditioning
system. More than forty people sat in the tight sold out space as we
were promised in the opening “turn off your cell phones” schpiel that
the A/C man was on his way but had been delayed by traffic. The
temperature was 80o at that time.
And so it began. Alain Villeneuve
and Andy Wagner appear on an almost barren stage except for a couple of
large boulders and a craggy dead tree on center stage. Nothing to be done,
one says, then proceeds to do something. Godot-philes (is there such a
word?) might say that the classic scene of Estragon struggling to remove
his boot was a little over done. Alain Villeneuve’s slight indeterminate
accent works in his favor and he certainly looks the part, dusty clothes
and all. Andy Wagner’s Vladimir starts out a little stiff and robotic,
much like of some of the street entertainers just outside the Boulevard
as they do Mechanical Man. When Vladimir talks to Estragon he often faces
the audience, executing flourishes and poses, a little like Commedia Dell'arte. Wagner’s performance remains at high energy throughout in
contrast to Villeneuve who plays it more subdued and low key.
The two men converse in short
sentences but not always on the same topic and when one poses a question
the other will respond with a vagary or an unrelated answer. Reminiscent
of the great Laurel and Hardy in some exchanges, their comic antics
symbolize more serious aspects of life. Their wait for Godot parallels
almost all of us as we wait for some event to happen, not sure of the
result, and sometimes not even knowing why we wait.
Their tedious monotonous wait is
broken when a screaming man approaches. He has a rope around his neck,
carries a suitcase, a stool, a coat and a basket and is followed by a man
holding the other end of the rope. This is Pozzo, who claims to own the
land and announces that the man is his slave. Trained to respond
instantly, when Pozzo cries out “Stool” the man called Lucky immediately
rushes to place the stool where Pozzo wants to sit. If Pozzo yells “Coat”,
Lucky rushes to help him put the coat on and so on. Pozzo is a flamboyant,
self serving man and to capture this character Charles Pacello needs to be
so much more over the top than Wagner’s energized Vladimir we almost have
a duel for overdoing the roles. By contrast, the character of Lucky does
not fare well in the hands of Deshik Vansadia who in spite of some comic
scenes, does not convince us of his plight. Students of Becket have
written that while it appears that Pozzo is the master and Lucky the
slave, it’s really Lucky who has control of Pozzo as is later seen how
dependent Pozzo is on Lucky. Alas, we get none of that feeling here. While
this is a play about “nothing to be done” this characterization takes that
too literally.
The play plods along and some
tightening in the early part of the first act with a bit of trim in the
middle of the second act would help matters a great deal. V. Cardozo
nervously plays the young boys sent by Godot to deliver the message that
he would not show up today but surely tomorrow. Becket’s message will
reach you too, but of course each person will see it from his/her point of
view allowing for plenty of discussion and talk in the post theatre coffee
klatches.
This particular evening provided
an unplanned parallel where life imitates art.
Remember that A/C man that was
promised at the top of the show? Like Godot, he never showed up either and
we all sat in the sweltering black box because, well, there was nothing to
be done.
Comments? Write to us at:
Letters@ReviewPlays.Com
Produced by Rochelle Rossman, the
show runs September 3-26 to October 1-2, 2010
Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm,
Sundays at 2pm & 7:30pm. *No show at 2pm on Sunday, September 5.
Visit
www.plays411.com/waitingforgodot for
tickets.
