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Waiting for Godot, which premiered in Paris in 1953, is being presented on Broadway this fall with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter directed by Jamie Lloyd. How has this absurdist play survived when so many people have either booed it or walked out of it? Why has it received so many acclaimed productions performed by the very best from Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart to Bert Lahr and E.G. Marshall to Robin Williams and Steve Martin? Directors such as Herbert Blau and Mike Nichols have staged it. I directed a college theatre production years ago and it still haunts me and members of my cast.
We will spend a class on playwright Samuel Beckett, a class on Act I, a class on Act II, and a final class on various famous productions and critical reviews. We will read some of the text aloud, share our experiences with the play and what it means to us (especially at this stage of our lives) and see if we can reach any conclusions about whether it deserves its classic status. We may even begin to understand it. There is a free copy of the play available on Kindle devices. Reading Beckett’s authorized biography, Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett by James R. Knowlson would be very helpful as well as attending any productions of a Beckett play. The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival is producing, Catastrophe: A Beckettian Cabaret September 25-28 and Cape Rep is producing the Irish play Trad by Mark Doherty which has Godot-like themes.
Waiting for Godot, which premiered in Paris in 1953, is being presented on Broadway this fall with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter directed by Jamie Lloyd. How has this absurdist play survived when so many people have either booed it or walked out of it? Why has it received so many acclaimed productions performed by the very best from Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart to Bert Lahr and E.G. Marshall to Robin Williams and Steve Martin? Directors such as Herbert Blau and Mike Nichols have staged it. I directed a college theatre production years ago and it still haunts me and members of my cast.
We will spend a class on playwright Samuel Beckett, a class on Act I, a class on Act II, and a final class on various famous productions and critical reviews. We will read some of the text aloud, share our experiences with the play and what it means to us (especially at this stage of our lives) and see if we can reach any conclusions about whether it deserves its classic status. We may even begin to understand it. There is a free copy of the play available on Kindle devices. Reading Beckett’s authorized biography, Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett by James R. Knowlson would be very helpful as well as attending any productions of a Beckett play. The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival is producing, Catastrophe: A Beckettian Cabaret September 25-28 and Cape Rep is producing the Irish play Trad by Mark Doherty which has Godot-like themes.