Waiting for Godot: a deep dive into the human condition

A new production of Beckett’s existential masterpiece is now playing The Street Theatre in Canberra.
PJ Williams (left) as Estragon and Christopher Samuel Carroll (right) as Vadimir in The Street Theatre's 2024 production of 'Waiting for Godot'. A bearded man leans against another man wearing a hat, ad hugs him. They are sitting on a rock on stage; a park bench is visible behind them.

“I know the mythology around it says ‘nothing happens, twice’, but in fact a lot happens in the play. It is actually a play of incredible action – it’s just that that action is about waiting, and is about suspension,” explains Canberra actor P J Williams, who is playing Estragon (Gogo) in The Street Theatre’s new production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

It’s this inherent contradiction that makes the play so fascinating, Williams says, especially during times of crisis.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts