![]() ![]() “Waiting for Godot” is rich with enough puns, one-liners, wisecracks and cockeyed observations to recall the glories of vaudeville and music hall revues, but shining out of the fun are brilliant slices of profound statements and observations which bring down the pain of the world. Perhaps it is the good fortune of having an Irish cast (from Dublin’s celebrated Gate Theater) finding the magic in Beckett’s uniquely Irish take on the English language. “Waiting for Godot,” as presented here, achieves the definitive balance between mirth and despair with sublime ease. Sometimes the anguish and seeming hopelessness of the tale of the tramps Didi and Gogo waiting vainly for the celebrated no-show Godot immerses the production in sticky bathos “Waiting for Godot” is widely performed by theater companies based in prisons, where the fate of Didi and Gogo can be appreciated by the ultimate captive audiences. Sometimes the playfulness of Beckett’s absurd scenario is overplayed into heavy shtick it is no surprise that overenthusiastic hammy clowns such as Bert Lahr, Zero Mostel, and the lethal combination of Steve Martin and Robin Williams have appeared in stage productions that played too hard for laughs. The fact this extraordinary production is going straight to the small screen is evidence that too many people in the film business wouldn’t know how to market a great movie if one came their way…and “Waiting for Godot” is a great film in every sense of the word.Īrguably the most dissected play of the 20th century, “Waiting for Godot” has been presented in so many ways that it is difficult to consider any single production to be definitive. ![]() The film is Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” originally produced for the Irish RTE television channel and slated for broadcast on American public television in January. It is nothing short of outrageous that one of the very best new films from Europe is not being slated for theatrical release in the United States. ![]()
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