Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Roving Pittsburgher Report, Samuel Beckett’s Sardonic Lament on the 20th Century, "Waiting for Godot."


Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett’s Sardonic Lament on the 20th Century

PICT Classic Theatre..JoAnn R. Forrester, Empress of Biz.


Good theater, a play well acted, leaves an impression with the audience for a couple of hours, or maybe  a day or two.   A great play well acted,  stays on one’s mind for days and often leaves haunting lingering questions.   Such as it is with the PICT and their presentation of Waiting for Godot”.
James FitzGerald, Martin Giles


 Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot, is  purposefully designed to tease, taunt and torment an audience with its dark humor and confusing plot laced with  sardonic laments of its main characters, Estragon and Vladimir.  Two friends, caught  in their own world of forgetfulness and sometimes shared memories.  They wait...they complain, they wait...they're hungry,they wait...they're bored...they wait.   They wait cemented together in their refusal to break free of the interminable waiting. 
Then aha...a break comes-Pozzo, ( Alan Stanford) the pompous “rich man” carrying a whip and loaded with the burden of his self importance and Lucky (Ken Bolden),the human mule,dying inch by inch from the lack of expectation.  The interplay between the two created a strong reaction in me.  I wanted to stand up and yell, “Stop being his human mule, his jackass,  kick him, bite him, leave him wallowing in his own self indulgence.”  Great acting gentlemen. 

Martin Giles, Ken Bolden, James FitzGerald, Alan Stanford
 Our two main characters, Estragon (Martin Giles) and Vladimir (James FitzGerald) play exceptionally well off one another.  They reminded me of a despairing and doomed version of Laurel and Hardy, forever caught in a confusing  no-mans land.  Two friends bonded together for 30 years.  They are at the end of their road, depleted, weak, fading memories and poverty stricken and yet they cling to one another without remembering the rhyme or reason of the bond.   Each act at the end has a slender shred of hope dangled by the young boy (Elliott Pullen)  who appears delivering the message that Godot cannot appear today--but please wait for tomorrow.

Often during the play I found myself wanting to stand up and shout, “Hey, wait a minute...what the do you mean by this? What
Martin Giles, James Fitzgerald
do you think audience?  Let’s discuss this."  After the play, my friend and I had a lengthy conversation  on the meaning of the play.  We both had different spins on the play and what we thought Samuel Beckett was trying to create.  Was it to whine in despair? Or to explain the last 20 years of war and insanity? Or was it to wail a lament on dire conditions of mid 20th century mankind,  or was it  to challenge , to prod to make us move and examine out lives of quiet desperation?
Kudo’s to the PICT, its director, Aoife Spillan-Hinks, and the fine crew for presenting this thought provoking performance of Samuel Beckett's play.  The only thing I wish would have been different, that I  could have stood up and yelled hey and started asking questions of everyone and how the play spoke to them. Aha...maybe next time!

PS…I just loved that Alan Standford, had to keep his promise of shaving off his famous trademark beard if so much money was raised.  Thank you for your sacrifice and fine leadership of Pittsburgh finest Classical Theater.

Written By: JoAnn R. Forrester
Host of Empress of Biz
Anchor Internet Radio Show on PositivelyPittsburghLiveMagazine.com
JoAnn R. Forrester is co-host of the Empress of Biz Talkcast and co-founder, president and partner in S. I. Business Associates, Small Business Solutions, LLC and Celebrate and Share. She is an entrepreneur, writer, business growth specialist, teacher, columnist and award winning writer. JoAnn specializes in helping small businesses grow and prosper. She is the co-developer of the PRICE IT PERFECT™ cost management system for small business, and has secured over 40 million dollars in loans and investment for her clients.
For more information visit Empress of Biz on PPLmag.com

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