Scott and I saw Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett on Saturday night performed at IPFW. This is one of my favorite plays! I enjoyed it, though the production was somewhat startling to me as it was produced in a very vaudville-ish fashion. I personally find the play so filled with such meaningful dialogue that first of all the laughter that ensued in the audience caused us all to miss some lines. Secondly, the audience REALLY got on a roll and took the laughter too far as far as I'm concerned laughing at Didi and Gogo as they contemplate suicide, laughing at the character Lucky who is a servant with a rope tied around his neck and is called names like pig and hog and laughing in Act 2 as Pozzo has fallen and is calling for help. Like I said, I prefer a bit more serious production of this play, but the actors in Saturday's performance were very good and overall it was enjoyable. Best of all, Scott and I got to spend the evening out together.
Some of my favorite lines from Waiting for Godot...
We are all born mad. Some remain so.
Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! (Pause. Vehemently.) Let us do something while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthily for once the foul brood to which a cruel fate consigned us!
Why are we here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come.
We wait. We are bored. (He throws up his hand.) No, don't protest, we are bored to death, there's no denying it. Good. A diversion comes along and what do we do? We let it go to waste. . .In an instant all will vanish and we'll be alone once more, in the midst of nothingness!
The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. (He laughs.) Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. (Pause.) Let us not speak well of it either. (Pause.) Let us not speak of it at all.
And my favorite quote in regards to Godot by Samuel Beckett himself... "If I knew who Godot was, I'd have put it in the play."
1 comment:
Interesting. I have never seen nor heard of this play. I am sure that is terrible. I never think to go to the plays at IPFW. I will have to look into that again. I went a lot in college but not anymore.
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