Comments on: Review: “Waiting for Godot” starring Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:40:41 +0000

Love these two! I also have found with great actors some of the most obscure plays come to life! So glad you got to enjoy the extraordinary piece. Chrisâ€™s last blog post..New Arms

By: Artaud's aunt

Artaud's aunt — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:57:33 +0000

The text is very funny but it is also strange, poetic, bleak and thought provoking. This production goes for mostly funny, supplemented by cosy, sentimental and an overarchingly comfortable “There now, Beckett was really nothing to be afraid of, after all”. Unsurprising in an age where former punk champions of anarchy star in commercials for butter, I suppose . The funny stuff is very expertly executed but the tragedy is barely allowed to intrude , for fear perhaps of spoiling the evening by making us, like Lucky, think for a few minutes.

I am curious at how many reviewers have dismissed Lucky’s (only) speech as all , or mostly, gibberish. Its sense has always seemed perfectly clear to me : In spite of everything (catalogued in tortuous , fragmented, absurd and insane detail) we “waste and pine”. Life’s a bitch (or a beach) then you die.
The other three characters hurl him to the ground in their desire to silence him because they don’t want to hear this.

Neither, it would seem , do we .

There is a difference between making something accessible to a wider audience and ripping out all its teeth . There are shedloads of wry sentimentality and endearing eccentricity to be had in television sitcoms.

By: Bassagirl

Bassagirl — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:42:18 +0000

Two great actors, I wish I had been there! It's interesting how some plays don't stand out on the page at all. I guess because many of us encounter works such as this one by reading them first (which is of course much cheaper) we usually expect them to be much more than a blueprint for actors and directors needing a great collaborative effort to make them outstanding. For me, this post raises the question of how can we make a play or any work of art accessible in ways that can contribute to the lives of the many over the few? I do think a lot of what Becket has to say with this play is important but if it is presented in a way that is unengaging to us, we might lose out. Bassagirlâ€™s last blog post..Pleading for the Desert (1961)