‘Waiting for Godot’ Returns to Broadway

I was pretty excited to read that Waiting for Godot will be back in production on Broadway starring some pretty big names in the acting world (Nathan Lane and John Goodman).  I rather enjoy the audio slide show narrated by the director Anthony Page, especially considering the Mr. Page had an opportunity to work with Samuel Beckett himself.  Now I feel like I have to get to NYC to see a performance of the play, especially considering that part of what I am writing about Waiting for Godot deals with the audeince aspect of the play.  Good stuff.  A fun little find this Friday morning.

Theater of the Absurd

I’ve be reading/rereading a number of plays this week that are often lumped in a classification of “Theater of the Absurd.”  So far I have read/reread Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame,” Edward Albee’s “The Zoo Story,” and John-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit.”  Besides these three plays, I also watched the film version of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” which is likely Albee’s best known work.  All of these rank as some of my favorite pieces of literature, and part of my purpose of reading them is that I intent to revamp, if not rewrite entirely, a paper dealing with these plays.  I won’t go into much detail (that is what the paper will be for), beyond saying that it will probably be about the relation of interpersonal relationships within the plays as well as the effects such relationships are intended to solicite in a captive audience.  I’ve also got a number of other Albee plays on my list to read, and Beckett’s masterpiece “Waiting for Godot.”

Truth is I love reading plays.  I am not sure when I really realized this, but it is something of which I am unashamed to admit.  Back in college I picked up a number of pieces of drama for mere pleasure, specifically a couple of Shakespeare works that I had wanted to reread and get a better understanding of (such as “Julius Caeser” which may be one of my favorite plays of all time).  I assume a part of my enjoyment of reading a play has to do with the fact that I used to enjoy performing in theater myself.  I saw “No Exit” as a live performance several years prior to my first reading the actual play.  The thing that  find interesting is that drama is written entirely with the intention of it being performed. It is this fact that I think makes it an interesting area of literary inspection.  How does writing change when it is made for a performance in front of an audience.  Really fascinating if you think about it, the fact that the majority of people who are apt to interact with the text do so not as readers, but as either audience or actors (which I suppose an actor/actress counts as a reader in some sense, but I could argue, in another sense, that they are still not).

If you have never read a play before, I challenge you to.  I won’t claim that they are always easy.  I’ve known a number of people who find it hard to read them.  My best advice, would be while reading a play, try to imagine it performed.  Depending on the playwrite’s decisions there may be a lot or very little stage direction in the actual text.  As you read try and visualize how the characters move, what the set is like, etc.  I find that this really helps bring into focus some of what the  writer is attempting to portray.  Then, if you feel like it, or are fortunate to get an opportunity, try and see the play performed live.  I can almost guarentee that it will help solidify an understanding of what you have read.  Really, try it out, it can be fun.

By the way, while probably not quite the same as watching the liver performance, the film version of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” is really a wonderful work of art, and the acting is magnificent.  It is a strange, uncomfortable, all around disturbing story, but ultimately I think it presents one of the most thought provoking looks at mid-20th century American life.  Quite a good comparison and contrast can be drawn between it and Albee’s other play “American Dream.”