Towson theater gives Godot a shot

After watching a performance of Waiting for Godot, most viewers struggle to define what they just saw or describe what it was exactly all about. Famously dubbed "the play about nothing", Samuel Beckett's masterpiece succeeds in saying quite a lot about time, space, and the nature of existence. And that's just for starters.

The classic play is currently showing at Towson University's Center for the Arts and features a fine assortment of student actors. With a capacity of just over 50 people, the theater allows for a great intimacy between the audience and characters that enhances the vividness of the show.

The protagonists of Waiting for Godot are Estragon (Ian Belknap) and Vladimir (Paul Wissman), who find themselves stranded together on an abandoned country road. There they stay, speaking in symbolic metaphor and code for the duration of the play, waiting for a man we never meet or see, Mr. Godot. At first, Estragon and Vladimir (lovingly known to each other as Gogo and Didi) engage in quick back-and-forth banter, at times humorous, at times tragic. This makes for periods of sleep-inducing dialogue interspersed with edge-of-your-seat thought-provoking drama. Sometimes Beckett allows the audience to get a stronger grip on what is going on. At other times, he simply cuts loose, leaving those without enough determination to follow him in the dust.

The acting, however, is first rate. For such a complicated and difficult play, both Belknap and Wissman manage to act with real conviction and feeling, giving us an accurate portrayal of their characters. Mr. Wissman, who apparently stepped into the role at the last moment, worked with a script in hand, but it did not detract from the quality of his work.

The set for the play is minimalist, but effective. On stage left lies a large stone which provides a seat for Gogo. On stage right sits a beautiful tree, stripped entirely of its leaves and foliage, leaving only the bark skeleton.

Midway through the first act we are introduced to Pozzo (Anna Lucero), an overbearing slave owner, and Lucky (Brad Burgess), his slave whom he leads around like a dog by a rope. Gogo and Didi disapprove of the the way Pozzo treats Lucky, and when Pozzo instructs Lucky to "Think!" and he erupts into a rapid-fire three minute monologue of unintelligible phrases and words strung together seemingly at random. The whole thing begins to look like a piece of absurdist nonsense.

At the end of the first act, a boy comes running on stage with a message from Godot, saying he will be definitely coming tomorrow. In the ensuing conversation, the boy reveals bits and pieces about Godot, that he watches sheep, that he beats the boy's brother, and that he provides food and shelter for both boys. Does this information help us derive any more meaning out of the whole? Not really. It just leaves us more perplexed than ever.

In the second act, we are treated to a second day of waiting for Godot, but it is still in vain. The characters brood and banter some more, taking off their shoes, eating turnips, even engaging in a bit of physical slapstick comedy. Strangely, Gogo seems to have no memory of the preceeding day's actions, while Didi does. Pozzo and Lucky return, but this time Pozzo loses his outwardly domineering position and insists that he is actually a slave to Lucky.

At times the playwright pokes fun at the irrationality of it all. Didi even says at one point "This is becoming really insignificant." And Beckett plays with the attention span of the audience, alternating entertaining funny sequences with mind-bendingly dull interludes. Didi admits "How time flies when you have fun."

But the characters remain eternally damned to be waiting for Godot. They are stuck in their physical space, unable to leave or run away. At the end, they conclude that if Godot does not come the next day, they will certainly hang themselves. If he does, only then are they saved. The fact that we know he will never come is perhaps a sentence of eternal damnation from Mr. Beckett. We can never know truth, but we can certainly continue to search for it.