Image: Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh in Sydney Theatre Company’s Waiting For Godot © Lisa Tomasetti
This is the exact opposite of entertainment and compelling storytelling, in fact, that is the point: this is an ANTI-play. Samuel Beckett’s definitive absurdist, existentialist work Waiting for Godot, often described as ‘a play in which nothing happens’, is exactly as the name suggests – two hours of waiting for someone named Godot to arrive. So you pretty much know straight up if this is going to be your cup of tea, and if not, you might be in for a rocky ride.
Sixty years after the play’s first performance, The Sydney Theatre Company’s interpretation remains faithful in style. A barren dystopic landscape. A bedraggled, haggardly dressed cast. A vacuum of sound and an absence of score and other production elements. Early productions recognised that the key to the play’s success and longevity is minimalism, presenting a blank canvas to the audience so they may freely ascribe whatever meaning they desire to the work. The STC’s production follows suit, it is nothing new or challenging, and dangerously inching toward cliché. Ironic, for a play with a structure that fundamentally challenged the entire history of its playwriting predecessors.
The centerpiece of this play in recent productions has been a stellar cast, and on that note we are not disappointed. Richard Roxburgh’s Estragon is a marvel of mordant eloquence and sly humour whilst Hugo Weaving gives Vladimir’s philosophical musings a curious wry distance. The supporting cast is also enjoyable, with special mention to Philip Quast who owns the stage as Pozzo. Simultaneously corrupt, and endearing, Quast humanises Pozzo’s grandiose statements, whilst Luke Mullins as Lucky lends a welcome element of physical theatricality in an otherwise static ensemble.
This is a cast that really knows how to command an audience, and there were times when, as part of the audience, I felt unsure as to which side of the spectacle I belonged, so complete was the control exercised by the cast over us. We fell in line, under the spell, into submission, and we liked it. However, as wonderful a feat this is for an actor, I have to question how this undermines the original point of the play. Despite a myriad of interpretations, the one thing we can generally agree on about the meaning of ‘Waiting for Godot’, is that in existentialist style, it provokes the question: ‘Why are we here?’ Placing an all-star cast in this play provides an all-too-convenient answer – ‘We are here to see Hugo and Richard!’ This oversimplifies the answer, and in doing so, prevents us from applying the question to our worldview, outside the context of the play. I did not walk out questioning my place on the planet or our role as humans in the world, as I had hoped. The bombasity of the cast superseded those world view questions, so the subtleties of the play remained locked in a world of theatricality and star power.
Waiting for Godot, a play that was meant to re-invent the genre, has now become iconic of that very genre, so it’s not surprising that productions are experiencing an impasse. Whether the solution is a fresh interpretation, or whether anti-structure is no longer relevant at all, time will tell. Until then, I will admit that reading this play on paper is more thought provoking than seeing it performed live with a star studded cast.
3 stars out of 5
Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett
Director: Andrew Upton. Associate Director: Anna Lengyel. Set Designer: Zsolt Khell. Costume Designer: Alice Babidge. Lighting Designer: Nick Schlieper. Sound Designer: Max Lyandvert.
Cast: Luke Mullins, Philip Quast, Richard Roxburgh, Hugo Weaving
Sydney Theatre Company
12 November – 21 December 2013
