reviewvancouver: Waiting for Godot

Blackbird Theatre Company
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Dates and Venue 27 December 2011- 21 January 2012 | The Cultch, Vancouver

Reviewer Ed Farolan

After more than 50 years, this play still gets the audience laughing and at the same time, feeling the angst of existence. Existentialist and Absurdist Samuel Beckett has influenced so many writers, and in particular, Harold Pinter, with his ridiculously long pauses, for example.This technique was certainly picked up from Beckett.

Strongly influenced by James Joyce, we can see Beckett's use of the "stream of consciousness" with Lucky's verbal tirade when his hat is put on for him to think. Adam Henderson playing Lucky received a warm applause after his almost 15-minute senseless speech, perhaps Beckett's way of parodying academics.

I played Anthony F. Ingram's role (Vladimir) years ago during my student days, and I know how difficult it was to be comic and tragic at the same time. (And of course, all those lines to memorize!) Simon Webb as Estragon did a terrific rendition of the wandering hobo with stinky feet, and William Samples as Pozzo was powerful and imposing. In the Pozzo and Lucky relationship, we see Beckett showing another slice of life in a farcical way--the master and the slave, the employer and the employee, the oppressor and the oppressed--paradigms of life, of society, of what it is to be a human being.

John Wright did an excellent job sticking to Beckett's script, with very little change (mentioning the 90s, for example, in one line), keeping the play updated.

The main theme of the play is boredom. But there was nothing boring in the execution of this production. This is a play that has to be seen, or seen again, if you've already seen it before. Tickets are as low as $16, and therefore, there's no excuse not to see it.