Waiting for What?...Godot

               

To laugh or to cry, that is the question. Waiting for Godot, is a personification of French existentialism…peachy. There where funny moments but for someone not exposed to something so existential, the play will be lost. It seemed to be tedious in the structure of the story arch. In short the message of the play was about how futile life is. An existentialist would in general say that life has no meaning. The production is in two acts and follows two protagonists Vladimir (DD) and Estragon (GG). Their super objective and conflict is to wait for a Mr. Godot. What makes this plot line tedious is the lack of fluidity in the progression. They seemed to have been in this bombed out ruin or wasteland for a while, but have no recollection of why or how they came to such a position. They also can’t remember why they must meet Godot, so all they can do is wait. In their waiting, the two try to pass the time. May it be their stretches or philosophizing, it’s just time they are trying to burn before they meet up with Godot. DD and GG also meet an odd couple. Pozzo and Lucky are introduced.  Pozzo is Lucky’s   slave driver. Their dynamics is that of a tyrant and the oppressed. Witnessing this scene with the four, no solution is presented to the current mystery of Godot. It is as if meeting Pozzo had no real purpose. As the audience, you only see the suffering of Lucky. After seeing how the story was progressing, I was curious if the whole plot is a commentary about how meaningless life is. It’s even reinforced in the second act. The structure of act II is virtually the same as before with a few augmentations.  At the climax of the second act Godot is nowhere to be found. From walking out the theatre I was disappointed but at the same time not surprised. It was a fantastic production and cast with Hugo Weaving as DD and Richard Roxburgh as GG. I only wanted absolution for DD and GG. Is that really how life is? Life is meaningless. Time can be cyclic. Everyday is virtually the same until an individual ceases to exist. That maybe true, but it is not enough. I like to think that during our meaningless existence we can still strive to pass the time being creative and loving.