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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Waiting For Godot
Verdict: Striving for clarity
This revival of director Peter Hall's 2005 50th anniversary interpretation of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot with the original cast is a comic investigation into the pursuit of meaning which is central to much, if not all, of the playwright's work.
Vladimir (James Laurenson) and Estragon (Alan Dobie) re-enact different versions of Samuel Beckett 's obsession with the human condition: what it is, whether - and how - it might be different. What has fascinated audiences since Peter Hall directed the first English-language version of the play in 1955, is how the subject sees itself, what it wants, and how it is placed in the world that has made it what it is. So it is a shame that Peter Hall's production appears little more than a resurrection, rather than an opportunity to rediscover.
The events of the play are carried out during two evenings between twilight and nightfall. The set is the same in both; a country road with a tree, but as Samuel Beckett clearly states - 'with four or five leaves' in Act 2 and a 'mound'. Peter Hall certainly adheres to these strict stage directions. Set designers Kevin Rigdon & Trish Rigdon give little more than suggested, and are hindered by what appears to be the minimum of lighting. Lighting designer Peter Mumford seems to concentrate on exposing the design, rather than creating mood or atmosphere.
Principal figures Vladimir and Estragon are not heroes of the drama by any classical definition. For a play about the human condition, it is not cast in the mode of high tragedy that convention would suggest. Samuel Beckett called it a tragi-comedy. It involves the ordinary stuff of everyday life. Its characters are the common men of modern times. Getting by is their major concern. Salvation means food, sleep, shelter - and some relief from pain and fear.
The play evokes an understanding of the effort required for such minimal achievements, and the recognition of a new heroism in these comic clowns, whose failures are as comic as tragic. But it is also Vladimir and Estragon's quest for the point of ending - which they call being with Godot. The absurdity of their situation is the pointlessness of this quest - because past and future are equally beyond knowing. Granted every day the chance and the materials of a new start, Vladimir and Estragon resist both.
Alan Dobie captures the isolated Estragon - indifferent to Vladimir's suffering, preoccupied with his own. His extraordinary vocal range, flippant mannerisms and gestures, are comic and ridiculous. Unfortunately, James Laurenson (Vladimir) is unable to match this. His Vladimir seems hesitant, and hostage to the pace and rhythm of the language - rather than being a grotesque character attempting to make sense of a world which, Samuel Beckett suggests, is a painfully and gloriously senseless game.
A man appears bowed under another man’s baggage. There’s a long rope round his neck – the man holding the other end cracks a whip. Could this be the arrival of Godot? It is not. The men are respectively Lucky (Richard Dormer) and Pozzo (Terence Rigby). They provide a series of grotesque entertainments 'worse than pantomime'. Richard Dormer, a truly exceptional performer, triumphs as the man of ideas who has sold his skills to conserve, rather than to criticise a corrupt society. Lucky is not a philosopher. He’s an entertainer, a song-and-dance man - and not a very good one at that. Richard Dormer, sketching Lucky's dance of entrapment in a net, or in his sudden, explosive tirade to a disturbed audience, proves both shocking and fascinating. Terence Rigby’s Pozzo is intimidating enough as a Victorian entrepreneur, but hard on the ear. His constant shouting is obtrusive and ultimately objectionable.
Peter Hall's production goes some way to achieving amusement, sympathy, admiration, and above all, frustration for Vladimir and Estragon - both hostage to whatever or whoever Godot may be. But he seems to strive for clarity as to the play's meaning. In doing so, he only achieves a naturalistic order, far removed from the Samuel Beckett’s theatre of the absurd. Vladimir and Estragon are conditioned to expect a revelation and an ending: for someone to come and distribute – arbitrarily - rewards and punishments, and - they hope - provide a final refuge. They expect to be given meaning. But the only meaning in existence is what they construct themselves with their own words and acts. And surely that is for the audience to decide.
Cast Credits: (alpha order): Alan Dobie (Estragon). Richard Dormer (Lucky). Harry Gething / Will Matthews (Boy). James Laurenson (Vladimir). Terence Rigby (Pozzo). Understudies: Mark Extance (Vladimir, Pozzo). Declan Mills (Estragon, Lucky).
Company Credits: Writer - Samuel Beckett. Director - Peter Hall. Associate Director - Cordelia Monsey. Scenic Designer - Kevin Rigdon. Lighting Designer - Peter Mumford. Costume Designers – Kevin Rigdon & Trish Rigdon. Sound Designer - Gregory Clarke. Casting Director – Gemma Hancock CDG. Company and Stage Manager - Anthony Sammut. Deputy Stage Manager - Hazel Price. Assistant Stage Manager - Kate Drinkwater. Wardrobe Mistress -Joan Hughes. Production Manager - Mark Carey. Costume Supervisor - Joan Hughes. Production Photographs - Nobby Clarke. Company - Peter Hall Company. Producer - Theatre Royal Bath Productions.
END
(c) Mike Miller 2006
reviewed Monday 25 September 06 / Richmond Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
