drama
' W aiting
for
Godot'
at
the
best
theater
on
the
coast
outside
of
Frisco
"Hie cold, gray, wet Eugene winter is upon us. Fuel and energy are in
short supply. The executive leadership of our country is crumbling
from “internal disorders” la euphemism for dishonesty, hypocrisy
and insipient psychosis). It is therefore appropriate during this period
iera?' of acute need—for warmth, energy, order, purpose and a
renewal of faith—to turn to the work of Samuel Beckett. It is ap
propriate because Beckett shows man trying to conceal and protect
his own feeling of weakness cm frigid mother Earth; man in quest of an
escape from the isolation of his mind and body; man in search of
meaning and purpose in a chaotic universe which man can understand
only as the source of his suffering
And so I recently expended some of man s remaining fuel ana some
of my waning energy to drive to Ashland to see the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival's fall production of Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
Un-ecological and un-ego-logical1 as this venture might seem, the
experience of this ‘modem classic" does demonstrate the way in
which we misuse our limited time and energy to maintain a no-risk,
no-fault lifeless stasis. As we dissipate our resources, we dissipate
ourselves. But enough of this existential sermonette. Let's look at the
play and then at the Ashland production.
The situation of the play is simple. We can’t call the structure a
“plot", since this term implies a linear progression in time, a
beginning, middle and end. a change or climax induced by a conflict.
Here it is always evening, always the same desolate plot of ground,
always the same unresolved tension of the ambivalent gray sky
linking light and dark, life and death, consciousness and un
consciousness It is here that two disheveled old wayfarers come
every evening to wait together for a mysterious, white-bearded being
named Godot who will, they hope, give their lives meaning and
direction—who will tell them why they live, suffer and wait. Like God.
he represents all that these two lost. frightened old men need to justify
their lives What they need, they lack; what they lack, they hope for
While they hope, they wait, while they wait they are impotent and
purposeless So it appears they create their own situation—or at least
it is a vicious circle which always excludes the possibility of change.
The two bums form a kind of complementary relationship Vladimir,
the more rational and outer-directed of the two. supports the hope of
redemption via Godot: "Let’s wait till we know exactly how we
stand." The fat. childlike Estragon (a former poet) suggests
repeatedly two alternatives to waiting—either they go their separate
ways or hang themselves But Vladimir reinforces their mutual
dependence, saying to his friend, as he might of Godot. "You are my
only hope ” The system, frustrating and painful as it may be. must be
maintained, because to institute any change is to take a risk, assume
responsibility and to give up hope. Their difference can be seen in the
following passage:
ESTRAGON: < He raises what remains of the carrot by the stub of
leaf, twirls it before his eyes > Funny, the more you eat the worse it
gets.
VLADIMIR: With me it's just the opposite.
ESTRAGON: In other words?
VLADIMIR: I get used to the muck as I go along.
ESTRAGOV (after prolonged reflection' Is that the opposite?
VLADIMIR: Question of temperament. Nothing you can do
about it...One is what one is...The essential doesn't change.
Although Estragor goes along with his fnend s acceptance of their
condition in hope of Godot s miraculous arrival, we get the feeling it is
a question of compassion, not authentic choice
As they wait, they pass the time Estragon eats, sleeps, dreams, and
struggles with his shoes The shoes, which connect him to the earth
and life), are too tight, just as his relationship to life is one of con
stricting pain and frustration. Perhaps this is why the recurrent desire
to hang himself is so attractive—m that “elevating experience”, he
would certainly transcend the annoyances of the earth-bound While
Estragon lives in the present the has no memory and forgets why
they’re there >, Vladimir lives in the reminiscences of the past and the
hope of a better future. It is Vladimir's hat, that which orients him to
the higher faculties of intellect and spirit, which mysteriously bothers
him. He clings to the evasive abstractions of his intellect and the
tenuous control of his conscious mind—tenuous because he is subject
to uncontrollable urinary and sexual drives and lives in fear of the
dream-world which his friend tries to share with him. Together they
maintain stasis.
During the two evenings which the play presents, the one major
diversion is the appearance of Pozzo, a kind of Prussian circus
master. and his slave. Lucky, to whom he is tied by a rope, the noose of
which is around the latter’s neck. Just as Estragon and Vladimir are
‘married” to each other by loneliness and the need to create a purpose
for their lives, just as they are both tied to Godot as the potential
release from their actual despair, so too Pozzo and Lucky are
mutually dependent on one another for a semblance of identity and
order All of the couples are bound by a need to evade the reality of a
purposeless life in the face of death. We all get married, raise families,
become employees or employers, etc., in order to play at filling the
void, passing the time, concealing our solitude, denying our essential
freedom and ignoring death.
Such endeavors constitute man s creative urge. It-doesn’t change
anything to create religious frameworks, such as that of the Godot
myth, or to form social alliances, such as marriage and Pozzo and
Lucky's slave-master relationship. But we must do something with the
time and energy at our disposal, limited though it may be.
ESTRAGON: We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the
impression we exist?
VLADIMIR: (impatiently) Yes yes, we’re magicians.
The maintenance of the illusion of security (in stability), identity (in
labels i and purposeful activity (in following artificial value systems)
is itself the purpose of living Awareness makes it difficult, but doesn’t
present any real alternatives Toward the end of the play, Estragon
complains to Vladimir: “I can’t go cm like this.” To which his friend
replies. ‘That’s what you think.”
Both acts end in the same way. Each evening, a wide-eyed young
boy appears with a message from Godot, and. like a Presidential press
secretary. renders the previous day’s promised reality inoperative ”
They begrudgingly accept the pronouncement that Godot won't come
and release them from their expectant suffering. But tomorrow for
sure For sure The countdown to the millennium begins again The
concluding lines of each act are the same:
VLADIMIR: Well? Shall we go°
ESTRAGON: Y es. let s go.
(They do not move.)
The way I’ve presented the play makes it sound morbid and
depressing, but such is not necessarily the case. In the Ashland
production, the musical hall burlesque and patter brought repeated
torrents of laughter and the love of Vladimir and Estragon was
strongly emphasized Director Andrew Traister interprets Godot as
"a warm human kind of show that reaffirms the basic values of faith
and friendship ” While I believe this is, if not misinterpretation, at
least an over-emphasis, it is a fairly popular approach to Beckett’s
work Many critics write about humanistic. Christian. Buddhist and
mystical currents in Beckett. While I see the hope of redemption, and
the illusion of meaning as that which leads to fear and despair, many
readers try to evade the decay, anxiety and purposelessness which he
portrays This eliminates the possibility of catharsis and acceptance
of the human condition of limited energy and time. (Is that damn
existential sermonette back on’’!)
The acting at Ashland is superb Jim Edmondson as the quasi
sophisticated Vladimir is a precise and graceful foil to Cal Winn’s
bear-like, rubber-lipped Estragon They are indeed a pair of polished
clowns, and their show of love for one another is moving In addition to
the occasional bear-hugs called for in the text, director Traister has
them periodically stare into each other’s eyes in moments of com
passion. understanding and acceptance Like an old married couple,
one of whom is becoming senile and despairing, they help each other
through the evening with the hope of Godot and the certainty of night.
Richard Riehle’s Pozzo is an erratic autocrat madly clinging to his
tenuous poser He is poised and powerful The Lucky of Jeff Brooks
dazzles He has one long, piercing speech of metaphysical word
scramble which he spits out distinctly. (As a matter of fact, all over
the press sitting in the front row) The set of Richard Hay is par
ticularly creative and effective—a desolate, chaotic rock garden
encircled by a donut-shaped ramp on which the circular action takes
place without beginning or end.
Good seats are still available for the final two weekends. It’s the best
theater on the coast outside of San Francisco, so take the time to drive
down and wait. It's just the inspiration we all need as we look ahead to
spring, a new President, the Second Coming and the Rebirth of
Wonder Now the only problem is the mean time (pun intended).
Gavin McComas
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