Heckel's thoughtful brevity set a tone which oozed through his deft direction of the action: Everything was played to stimulate that rare space where lower emotions mingle with higher thoughts on a canvas of words and gestures where the chaotic language of the soul is forged. Director John Heckel made an appearance before each act to give an excellent little introduction, at one time referencing the late Irish critic Vivian Mercier's observation that with its two acts, Godot is a play where nothing happens twice. The play was divided, as is tradition, into two acts running a little more, then a little less, than an hour each, with a nice intermission between. Beckett was the last great Modernist and a wry genius, so it isn't just a static wall of postmodern barking in the dialogue. There are themes in Godot worth discussing in depth, which people have been doing for the last 60-plus years. I'll only say that the largest line in my pages of notes was, "The absurdity of meaning," which I underlined. I won't spend any time analyzing the meaning behind Waiting for Godot because that's not the point of a review and the wordspace needed to properly get a handle on the thing would be too large and tedious for the casual reader. What Leslie Castellano and company have done with the place is nothing short of magical. I'll leave the description there because I want you the reader to come see for yourself and understand what I mean when I say I am really looking forward to seeing it grow as a cherished new venue in our community. We were both barely initiated acolytes in the queasy world of the master Beckett.Ī quick word about the new Synapsis: It's an absolutely gorgeous space. Like myself, he had also read the book as a youngster and never seen the thing acted out before. Lucky for me, Shea took the bait like a chump and agreed to accompany me to the performance. In that sense, Waiting for Godot is a good analog for Life Itself, and much like Life Itself, everyone should experience it at least once, and with the company of friends. Not funny haha like a Woody Allen movie, but funny strange, like a Woody Allen marriage." It is also infuriating, enigmatic, inscrutable and unbelievably brilliant. It's got a humor in it that is reminiscent of what the late great Norm Macdonald said about death: ". Waiting for Godot is a maddening play with irritating wordplay stretching out like a parrot's recreation of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" routine, with every action debated, litigated, then re-litigated before being poorly undertaken if undertaken at all. I did this in anticipation of reviewing the performance of the same play in the beautiful new Eureka headquarters of Synapsis at 1675 Union St.Ībout halfway through the first act, around the appearance of the brute Pozzo and his "slave" Lucky, I tossed the book at the wall, swearing loudly, and called my friend Shea. Last week, I went to Tin Can Mailman in Arcata and purchased a used copy of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and started reading it again for the first time in 20 years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |