Waiting For Godot - Sydney Theatre Company 2013

A few weeks ago myself, Guild, NaomiStyleWeekly and another friend went to see Sydney Theatre's production of Waiting for Godot, with Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh in the starring roles as Vladimir and Estragon respectively. 

Myself and my friend had studied WFG in Extension English, but Guild and Naomi had never read it. I am not a huge fan of the Absurdist genre so I wasn't quite sure what to expect when watching it performed on stage, but I have to say - STC's production was absolutely perfect. In fact, after watching it, I like the play much more than I did while reading it!

In terms of staging, WFG is far more scripted than Shakespeare, and it's written in such a way that there's little you can do in terms of changing things, or cutting out/adding parts. As it is, I thought the acting, the setting and the costumes were all phenomenal.

The play is literally just set on a road with a tree, but this production had put an industrial sort of take on it, with ruined buildings and pipes in the background, and the tree little more than a thin white trunk with a single branch. I thought this was fantastic as it gave it a sort of post-apocalyptic, Fallout-esque vibe that really highlighted the fact that this is a text from the Cold War era and called back the paranoia and fear of nuclear warfare and the aftermath of the Atomic Bomb.

Weaving and Roxburgh were both fantastic - Roxburgh particularly, his Estragon was completely adorable and quickly became my favourite character (I had always preferred Vladimir up until this point).

What I loved about this production was that they really forefronted the friendship between Didi and Gogo - something I was aware of but often overlooked in the play. The two actors had fantastic chemistry and the sense of brotherliness and companionship came across strongly - and served almost as a beacon of hope amongst all the dreary waiting around. 

The comic side of the tragicomedy was also brilliantly executed - both in terms of the physical comedy and the witty exchanges between the characters. It's one thing to read it, but seeing it performed in stage was hysterical. In particular Lucky's speech ended with him half-falling off the stage to hang over the edge right in front of the front-row audience members.

The mannerisms of all the characters were spot-on, and in terms of costume and appearance they were all exactly as I imagined them from the play!

There really isn't much more for me to say - as I mentioned before, it was perfect. Thoroughly entertaining, funny but also sad, the sense of waiting futilely came across strongly, the bromance was fantastic, the acting was great (Roxburgh stood out to me the most but the actor of Lucky also did an admirable job, both in delivering that ridiculously long monologue as well as stumbling around and drooling everywhere).

My only criticism - and this is a very, very minor quibble - is that at the end of each act, they could have waited just a little bit longer after saying "Let's go" before ending the act. Just to get the full impact of that dire, dire stage direction "They do not move." That was my only problem with it.

Other than that, I had a fantastic time watching this! I hope my friends who accompanied me also enjoyed it - and I would love for Naomi to do a guest piece for the blog on her thoughts, if she wants.

I rate it five puddings! Would watch again.

FURTHER RANDOM NOTES:

• I'm not sure if it was the lighting on the stage, but you could see showers of spit spraying from the actors' mouths just about every word! Nothing wrong with that, of course, I'm not sure if they had microphones and it wasn't distracting or anything - but combined with Lucky's (scripted) drooling, I found it rather amusing.
• The turnip Vladimir gave Estragon was so tiny that until he bit into it and there was a crunching noise, I actually thought it was an imaginary turnip! Haha!
• In terms of my own interpretation of the play - I try not to rationalise it as being at a particular place or point in time. It's Absurdism, it's not meant to be logical or real in any way. As it is, I tend towards the existential reading of the play, and see it as a study of humanity, human relationships and the purpose of life. We do spend a lot of our lives waiting - waiting to finish school, to grow up, to get married, to have kids, for our kids to grow up - in the end, is everything we do just a series of actions to pass the time?
• The program contained the story of a group of prisoners who performed WFG in jail, and were successful enough that they went on tour. All but one of the actors took the chance to escape on their opening night. When Samuel Beckett, the author of the play, was told about it, he found it hysterical.
• One phone went off, right at the end. Theatre etiquette, people. *unimpressed*

Guild, the Didi to my Gogo, still has not posted anything on this blog! I would be very interested in hearing her thoughts on the play, as someone who had no idea what she was getting into when she watched it. *long, unsubtle stare in her direction*

(I have a massive backlog of things to write about- Kenneth Branagh's Macbeth, Belvoir Hamlet, Bell Shakespeare Comedy of Errors and The Walking Dead Season 4 part 1. Stay tuned :) )