Waiting for Godot

Last night Trevor and I went to see Waiting for Godot.  I first read it in high school, and frequently re-read it in college and right afterward, but this was the first time I finally saw it performed.  The actors were Irish, which does make sense since Samuel Beckett was Irish.  I had only read the play in French, though, and when I last read it I hadn't just spent the last ten years living with an Irishman.  Which is to say I had no way of knowing how much Irish humour there is in the play.  It did underscore for me, though, how much the Irish and French sensibilities overlap.  Oh, the Gauls.

The set was remarkable in its lunar theme.  A gray moon with something of a crater holds all the action and a tree is suspended from above.  A luminous moon hangs in the background.  It's simple, stark, and makes it so the actors had to really carry it, and they did.  The play is one with no easy conclusions, no obvious point, but it really is great at making you come up with explanations.

I think it's about aging, the silence of God, the downfalls of being a master or a slave, the freedom in uncertainty and the futility of life.  But it's not overtly about any of those things, and isn't really about any of them at all.  There are numerous uncomfortable silences throughout the play, and that's probably part of why half the audience didn't come back for the second act when it debuted in London in the fifties.

Last night's crowd, though, most certainly did come back for the second act.  It was a younger crowd, which I find heartening.  And the younger folks outdressed the older folks, which I find telling.  Theatre has its origins in holy rituals, and I think there is still something magical to it.  It was a joy to visit Emerson's new Paramount Theatre.  I forgot to mention yesterday that the whole reason I was at Downtown Crossing was for this play.

Here are some reviews and explanations better than mine:

http://artery.wbur.org/2013/11/03/waiting-godot-artsemerson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_Godot

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2013/11/05/godot-goes-from-dublin-theatre-festival-paramount-center/CjbHufclGU00kCTEaYetYO/story.html