Samuel Beckett

WAITING FOR GODOT

By Stephen Wilson

Irish poet & playwright Samuel Beckett

MOSCOW -  The Russian theater company TRAP, under the direction of actor Victor

Mytnikov, recently performed Samuel Beckett's legendary play, 'Waiting

for Godot', in Russian , on June 17, captivating many spectators with

a moving performance where the character of Vladimir was played by

Oleg Baranov , Estragon by Andrei Yaresho and the boy by S. Varlamov.

An old saying warns that : 'Only a fool makes firm predictions in Russia.'

This proverb is certainly vindicated by the recent dramatic World Cup

Football games where many conceited presumptions were turned upside

down. For instance, who would have anticipated Germany playing so badly

and Russia performing well beyond the fans' dreams by two spectacular

victories? Another unexpected but pleasant shock was when fans from

all over the world were treated in such a warm, friendly and hospitable

way. Many expected to be treated roughly, rudely and coldly.

And when you go for a casual walk in the park, almost anything might happen!

I, and a colleague ,decided to go for a walk in Lefortovsky park. We decided

to go through another park and 'just go where our eyes took us'. We ended

up passing by the Kristall plant which makes vodka. We came across a

museum but later noticed a poster advertising an evening play called: 'Waiting

For Godot' . "Let's go to it " insisted my colleague. "But we are already late!"

Well we went. When we entered the building there was nobody selling tickets

or anyone at the stalls. We climbed up the stairs, stumbled across a hall and

inconspicuously peeped through the door. We glided into a huge theater

where a slogan 'Art is for the people ' had been sculpted on the roof. It

almost resembled a church. On the stage, the two actors playing tramps

were reenacting a scene where they were arguing over how to put on and take

off boots. One character was scolding the other for not taking his boots off

every night otherwise he would hurt his feet.

The play, 'Waiting for Godot' by Samuel Beckett, tells the story of how two

tramps are struggling to just survive at the lowest basic level and preserve a form

of fragile dignity which can crumble at any moment. The two tramps, while

waiting for Godot for inexplicable reasons, hotly discuss, debate and argue

over what they must do . Should they wait for Godot? Should they kill themselves?

Why don't they leave and go to the Pyrenees? Should they end their friendship

as they are getting on each others nerves? How should they cope with incessant

boredom?

Many optimists have condemned this play as too pessimistic. Just the whining

of a bunch of losers! But this is too shorted sighted and myopic a view. The

play can be construed as questioning naive over optimistic assumptions we have

about our lives. The darkness of the play is redeemed by the humor. And there

is something heroic and humane about the tramps which can touch us.

Who Godot is remains enigmatic! Beckett had a wicked sense of humor and

a sharp wit. The Russian critics, like an English actor , thought or hoped that

Godot was God. But Beckett was having none of that. He stated in a 1955

interview: "I told him {Sir Ralph Richardson} that if by Godot I had meant God

I would have said God, and not Godot. This seemed to disappoint him greatly.'

We never find out who Godot is and why the tramps are waiting for him. Are

they hoping Godot will offer them work or a place to stay? Who knows?

Yet the tramps, Estragon and Vladimir are not the total outcasts who are utterly

defeated or trapped by despair as some critics claim. Their lives are not totally

devoid of meaning or just a struggle for basic survival. They are searching for

something elusive and enchanting. For instance, you hear Estragon state;

'We always find something, eh, Did, to give us the impression we exist?'

Vladimir {Impatiently} 'Yes, yes , we 're magicians. But let us persevere in what

we have resolved ,before we forget.' That is one of the problems. The characters

are stuck in a void where they are disorientated by a lack of clear sense of

time and space. They forget what day it is, what they did yesterday and what

park they last slept in.

Vladimir says: 'You should have been a poet.'

Estragon 'I was, {gesture towards his rags } isn't that obvious.'

We often hear the phrase 'Nothing to be done ', or 'No use struggling ' and

'One is what one is'. There seems to be nothing in their lives to mitigate their

boredom, despair and hopelessness other than their wit. This is perhaps the

only thing they have in common with the characters from Shakespeare's plays.

The play raises the question presented by another poet Seamus Healy who

asked: 'Is there life before death?' What comes across is the intense

boredom experienced by the characters when, for example, Vladimir states:

'We wait. We are bored.. No don't protest , we are bored to death , there is no

denying it . Good . A diversion comes along and what do we do? We let it

go to waste. Come let's get to work! In an instant all will vanish and we will

be alone once more, in the midst of nothingness'.

In the play, we are reminded of the bleak life of being homeless. One of the

characters awakens to find someone beat him up while he slept. The threat

of violence in always lurking in the background while the small park with the

tree seems like a very temporary refuge. We can guess the police will soon

move them on.

During the intermission we spoke to the director Victor who seemed

surprised to see a foreigner . He told us he was an actor and that the

performance had been put on for free. We even were treated to a free

cup of tea by a kind spectator. When we later told another Russian English

teacher that we had seen Beckett's play, the teacher, Natasha beamed,

saying: "I would love to see this performance". I got the impression that

Beckett's play can find many spectators if they only knew about when it

was being performed. Perhaps the dark themes of the play such as

intense suffering, despair and small joys strike a chord amid people

who have been through a lot.

The theater came as a nice little surprise. But as the character Vladimir

wisely declares: 'Never neglect the little things of life.'