“WAITING FOR GODOT”
Samuel
Beckett, “Waiting for Godot”, Compañia Torat, directed by Antonio Valls
Cast:
-Muchacho:
Alba Herrada
-Estragon: Carmen J. Tomas
-Vladimir: Jean-Marc Lostetter
-Pozzo: Miguel Angel Imedio
-Lucky: Estrada r.
-Música: Gabriel Benavides
-Dirección:
Antonio Valls
October in 2005, Asociació
Valenciana de circ, Compañía Torat (C/ Juan de Mena, 20)
The
performance of the play “Waiting for Godoy” by the Company of
Torat, named TA3, is an experimental and original performance which starts with
Estragon sitting on the ground trying to take off his boot. After it, the
entrance of Vladimir (one of the two main characters, next to Estragon) is by
bike. He leaves the bike next to the tree, which in a imaginary way, is in the
stage. The tree is the only object of reference into an empty place,
which in my opinion is the solitude of the characters.
This
space is going to be extended when the characters interact in some moments of
the play with the audience. They sit on some people while they continue
talking.
The
characters, in an excellent interpretation, Vladimir and Estragon are
alone waiting for Godot, and Lucky and Pozzo travel alone. The boy also appears
into scene always alone.
Estragon is a bum and sleeps in a imaginary ditch where he
is beaten each night. He has no memory beyond what is immediately said to him,
and relies on Vladimir to remember for him.
Vladimir makes Estragon wait with him for Mr. Godot's
imminent arrival throughout the play.
Lucky is the slave of Pozzo. He is tied to Pozzo via a
rope around his neck and he carries Pozzo's bags.
In a determined moment in the stage, when Lucky is being pulled with the
rope by Pozzo, the shorts with which Lucky is dressed are fallen. It caused,
together the absurd and funny scene, the laughs in the audience. Laughs that
didn’t stop during all of the play.
Pozzo is the master who rules over Lucky. He stops and
talks to the two bums in order to have some company. In the second act Pozzo is
blind and requires their help. He, like Estragon, cannot remember people he has
met.
The boy is a servant of Godot. He plays an identical role
in both acts. He gives information to Vladimir and Estragon about that Mr.
Godot will not be able to come that night, but will surely come the next day.
The boy never remembers having met Vladimir and Estragon before. He has a
brother who is mentioned but who never appears.
At the end of the play, the boy appears with a bottle of wine offering
it to the audience but not free. He asks
to the audience for money, with what I was badly surprised and I didn’t understand
Godot is understood as one of the many things in life that people wait
for.
The theme of the play is set by the
beginning:
Estragon: Nothing to be done.
Vladimir: I'm beginning to come round to
that opinion.
Essentially it describes the hopelessness
of their lives.
The entrance of Vladimir by bike into scene is a tribute that the
Company of Torat does to Samuel Beckett because every money that he earned was left for the poorer people and he stayed
only with a bike.