One Tree Theatre Productions
Background to current play
Waiting for Godot
Samuel Beckett has been grouped alongside other contemporary play writers like Eugène Ionesco and Arthur Adamov under the name “Theatre of the Absurd”, although he never claimed this name for himself.
According to philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camous, Theatre of the Absurd defines the condition of the modern man, who is condemned to search in vain for the meaning of his existence. This existentialist point of view of the world that the Theatre of the Absurd offers has absorbed audiences and critics for the past decades and, although Absurdism can be found in some works of Shakespeare or even in Commedia dell’Arte, it was after the Second World War that this current movement of Absurdism emerged as a rebellion against the traditional values of Western culture and literature.
The notion of the Absurd contains the idea that there is no meaning in the world beyond what meaning we give it and this is the underlying base of Theatre of the Absurd which has these main characteristics: 1) There is often no real story line but instead an image of pathos, an appeal to emotion and to elicit feelings in the audience that already reside in them. 2) There is an intention to rationalise the incomprehensibility of the world. 3) Language is often a barrier of communication and action becomes the language.
Waiting for Godot is one of the existentialist plays that better displays the Theatre of Absurd. Estragon himself in Act I says: “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful!” The dialogues are based on details, everyday life and repetition, Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for Godot who they hardly know, but admitting they would recognise him if they saw him, and to occupy themselves they eat, sleep, argue, sing, play, exercise, contemplate suicide and talk. The language exists only to fill the void of existence: Estragon suggests: “In the meantime let us try and converse calmly, since we are incapable of keeping silent”. Vladimir replies: “You’re right, we’re inexhaustible” and Estragon adds: “It’s so we won’t think”. Language is therefore nothing but a reflection of emptiness, even when there is information to be given the two main characters interrupt the dialogue and prevent it to develop. So language is unable to render reality and is there only to pass the time.
Without knowing who or what Godot really is (Beckett himself said "If I knew, I would have said so in the play."), Waiting for Godot deals with questions about death, religion and the meaning of human existence. This is what makes putting this play on stage today such an interesting challenge: modern society and the 21st century’s culture movements are still trying to address these same questions.