Thursday, March 06, 2008

"Waiting For Godot" - March 2008

Tuesday's performance at the Citizens Theatre was undoubtedly the best production of "Waiting For Godot' I will ever see - and I can say that with absolute certainty. Not that it was good you understand, but it was such an excruciating evening that nothing could persuade me to see another production of it. Ever. To be fair, the performances were fine - it was the play I just didn't get.

This may be the moment when we at View From The Stalls lose all credibility as the play is clearly highly regarded elsewhere. And of course the rest of the audience absolutely lapped it up throughout, giving it a great curtain call at the end. But us, we struggled to make it back after the interval. In the play one of the characters says - "Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful" Yep, pretty much. In fact, so much so that I can't even bring myself to spend any more time thinking about it. Sorry.

Normal service will hopefully be resumed with "Animal Farm" later in the week. And if anyone wants to try to persuade us of the merits of "Waiting For Godot" feel free to heckle...

"Waiting for Godot" runs at the Citizens until Saturday 8th March.

5 Heckles

Anonymous said...

I left this performance at the interval, the only time I've ever left a show early.

Ken Tynan said this play redefined drama as 'basically a means of spending two hours in the dark without being bored’. Personally, I think it redefines boredom. You may think you have experienced mind numbing teeth grinding tedium before, then you see this play and realise your life has been an orgy of wonder and excitement. The couple next to me appeared to be sleeping five minutes in, doubtless they were applauding with the best of them come the end. The emperor is stark bollock naked!

Statler said...

Glad to see we weren't entirely alone, although I'm not sure that I'd quite agree with it being boring. Frustrating and pointless, definitely, but the performances were good enough that I don't think I was bored.

I'd love to think it was a case of The Emperor's New Clothes but the rest of the audience seemed to genuinely enjoy it, much to my bewilderment.

Anonymous said...

I actually quite enjoyed this production. I thought it was nicely staged, the actors were well drilled and delivered excellent performances. I was familiar with the play before hand so I wasn't distracted by the bizarre nature of the plot (or lack thereof). By going to see a show like Waiting For Godot I think you're signing yourself up for a night of characterisation and appreciation of performance rather than a wholesome storyline and a happy ending.

That's my tuppence!

K

Statler said...

Thanks Kris - every tuppence counts, and I can't disagree with any of your comments on the staging and performances. I was aware it would be a 'challenging' work but intentionally avoided reading up before seeing the show. But to be honest I'd probably have gone anyway - just to see how I reacted to it. And now I know...

Anonymous said...

there were some fantastic performances though.