Christchurch performance of Godot well worth the wait

Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett
Isaac Theatre Royal Christchurch
July13 - 15

One of the main reasons that Samuel Beckett’s play, “Waiting For Godot” continues to baffle and intrigue audiences is that it’s not a play about nothing but rather a play about everything, including the meaning of life.

Some consider it to be a dark drama about the downside of humanity while others see it as comedy about the indomitable strength of the human condition.

That two men, Estragon and Vladimir, standing around in a post apocalyptic watste land debating various topics while they wait for a man called Godot does not seem to have much going for it.

Godot is a person they know nothing about but are by turns intrigued by and terrified of him. They even seem to accept that he may never arrive.

While it may come out of an absurdist, experimental theatre tradition most of the time it rolls along like a Jerry Seinfeld sitcom.

There are mentions of the biblical god and occasionally Godot gets referred to with emphasis being placed on the first syllable of his name. However it is essentially a nihilist play, the occasional show of Christian virtue overwhelmed by corruption, lies and abuse.

At another level it is a play about the theatre. This is made evident in the production with a set which features traditional theatre boxes on either side of the stage as well as a slumped roof and lighting rig.

Estragon and Vladimir may actually be old thespians, occasionally engaging in some vaudeville routines. When they are having a slanging match between themselves the worst epithet they can come up with is “critic”.

Maybe it is all just another version of the Shakespearean notion of the whole world being a stage and we are merely players on it.

Then there is the symbolism.

Does that lump of stone that Estragon sits on, a carved Greek style pediment, which could have come from the ruined theatre, mean this is about the collapse of civilization.

Does the tree in the middle refer to the tree of life, the tree of knowledge, the hanging tree (they make a couple of ineffectual attempts to hang themselves on it), or is it about the survival of nature after the apocalypse and why does it sprout leaves in the second act.

It is a play about which we are constantly having little epiphanies about, as it all becomes quite clear. However, no sooner have we grasped the point we find our perceptions altered as we head off down another metaphysical track.

While Beckett has provided all the various themes, ultimately it is the actors who give the play life and meaning. Sir Ian McKellen as Estragon and Roger Rees as Vladimir achieve this, They conveyed their characters brilliantly and at the same time they made us aware of themselves as actors. They manage to move from philosophers to mad men to stand up comedians casually and effortlessly.

Mathew Kelly as Pozzo and Brendan O’Hea as Lucky provided two larger than life characters while the unnamed young boy did a fine job in his two short appearances.