Waiting For Godot

 “Nothing can be made out of nothing.” That is what Lear says in Shakespeare’s King Lear.   Don’t tell that to Samuel Beckett who spent a lifetime writing about the nothingness of existence. In general, for Beckett, life was a dung-heap where individuals passed the time waiting for something to happen. What does happen while a person waits could be boring, tragic, funny, silent, loud, philosophical, scatological, cruel, tender, but never purposeful or fulfilling.

     Waiting For Godot is, for many, the greatest play ever written in the English language. In fact, it is probably the best play written in English and French.  Countess productions 
are mounted every year. A Noise Within in Glendale California has mounted a superb rendition of this classic. I’ve seen many productions over the years and even have acted in a couple and this is one of the best, right up there with the production from The Abbey Theatre in Dublin that has been touring around the world for the last several years.

     Joel Swetow and Robertson Dean, two of A Noise Within’s finest actors, assay the parts of the bums waiting on a country road for the mysterious Godot to come. Godot is never identified except to say that he has a white beard, does nothing, and may show up tomorrow. The waiting is killing Joel Swetow’s Estragon. He wants to get on with it and leave, separate from his companion of fifty years, Vladimir, or just go ahead and hang himself. But death isn’t in the cards because there is no rope to be had to hang himself, and the logistics of hanging himself on the puny tree that occupies the same space, are impossible. Swetow is wonderful as Estragon. Smarter than other times I have seen the play and ultimately quite a tragic figure.

     Robertson Dean is also terrific as the seemingly erudite Vladimir. His Vladimir comes off as a thinker who doesn’t want to think, a poet without a quill. Of the two bums, he is resolved to his fate and is alternately set in his ways and terrified of the implications. He can’t risk laughter or he would pee his pants and besides laughter hurts. Dean is also the master of the droll understatement (“this is becoming really insignificant”).

     Mitchell Edmonds is probably the funniest Pozzo I have seen. He alternates between pumped up arrogance and total vulnerability. I don’t think I have ever seen Pozzo played so vulnerable. Edmonds has a natural likability so you cant help feeling sorry for the guy despite the fact he has a slave, Lucky, well played by Mark Bramhall, in tow.

     The production is beautifully designed by Michael C. Smith. His barren landscape is ironically, gorgeous. The Lighting by James P. Taylor evokes just the right mood and has come up with the perfect instant switch from daytime to night. .

     The production is flawlessly directed by Andrew Traister. He paces the show brilliantly, never letting it sink into maudlin sentiment and never veering far from the humor of the piece. What I really admired were the rapid shifting of moods. The shifts were always clear and delineated. Best of all I learned new things in this production. It struck me that Vladimir and Estragon are on their way to becoming Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo and Lucky have descended even further to blindness, and slavish obedience in order to avoid the void. Their games are more desperate and sad. Unlike his other plays, Beckett allows several rays of hope in Waiting For Godot.  Vladimir and Estragon do love each other and the tree blooms. In later plays all that is gone.  This is a masterful production of a great play

A NOISE WITHIN 234 Brand Blvd. Glendale CA  818.240.0910 in rotating rep