12.4.08
The Biblical origins of Bob Dylan's IT'S ALRIGHT MA (I'm Only Bleeding)
King Solomon inspired one of Dylan's most enduring songs
12.2.08
Napping more effective than a cuppa joe
Reports says replace afternoon coffee with a lie-down
11.29.08
[BOOK REVIEW] LUSH LIFE by Richard Price
Review by Seth Rogovoy, critic-at-large, Berkshire Living
11.26.08
MASS MoCA DIRECTOR to BRING SOL LEWITT SOUTH
Rest of the Story event at the Triplex on Dec. 14
11.25.08
[FILM REVIEW] QUANTUM OF SOLACE
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
11.23.08
[FILM REVIEW} A SECRET by Claude Miller
Review by Seth Rogovoy, critic-at-large, Berkshire Living
11.23.08
Why so many Holocaust films, and what do they say about us?
Film critic A.O. Scott asks penetrating questions about our obsession with Nazis and their Jewish victims
11.23.08
Lenox Gallery to feature small works by top regional artists
[PRESS RELEASE] Shade Gallery at the Bookstore opens new show on December 4
11.23.08
First English pubs, now French cafes are fading
Along with smoking and drinking, so goes the French way of life
7.7.08
CHATHAM SYNAGOGUE TO CELEBRATE LEGACY OF MARC CHAGALL
[PRESS RELEASE] Discussion of his life and work
11.17.08
[FILM REVIEW] RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
11.7.08
Police, school administration apologize for terrorizing MMRHS students
Overreaction to bomb threats prompts indiscriminate police interrogation of innocent students
11.6.08
Another look at Dylan's IS YOUR LOVE IN VAIN?
Dylan's post-divorce song offers great insight into the transitional period
11.4.08
Dave Mason to perform at the Mahaiwe Dec. 5
[PRESS RELEASE] Legendary rocker, former member of Traffic, brings guitar and band to Great Barrington
11.4.08
Ani DiFranco to play Bardavon
[PRESS RELEASE] Indie folksinger performs in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on November 19, 2008
11.4.08
Ani DiFranco to play Bardavon
[PRESS RELEASE] Indie folksinger performs in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on November 19, 2008
|
[THEATER REVIEW] WAITING FOR GODOT at BTF
8.4.08
Stephen DeRosa is Estragon and David Adkins is Vladimir in BTF's production of Waiting for Godot [Photo by Kevin Sprague]
BERKSHIRE THEATRE FESTIVAL
WAITING FOR GODOT by Samuel Beckett
Unicorn Theatre
Through August 23, 2008
Directed by Anders Cato
by Seth Rogovoy
(Stockbridge, Mass., August 3, 2008) -- "Nothing happens. Nobody comes. Nobody goes. It's awful!"
Lines like that hang heavy in the air at any production of WAITING FOR GODOT by Samuel Beckett, including the sharp, terrific one currently being staged at Berkshire Theatre Festival's Unicorn Theatre.
The only problem with this production is that it is so successful from top to bottom that it accomplishes what Beckett set out to do: to demonstrate, in no uncertain times, the utter irrelevance and absurdity of life and art.
In other words, after seeing GODOT, a viewer is really left wondering what's the point of going to see anything else. The work is powerful -- and so powerfully rendered here -- it's like painting after Picasso, symphonic music after Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, jazz after Miles Davis, folk music after Bob Dylan. It's a paradigm-shifting experience that renders all that has become before totally irrelevant -- a play like Shaw's Candida, seen earlier this summer at BTF, might as well be a TV soap opera next to GODOT.
Fortunately a few playwrights did pick up the gauntlet laid down by Beckett, and hence work by Harold Pinter (whose Caretaker was seen earlier this summer at BTF) and his American spawn, David Mamet, still holds the interest of theatergoers profoundly affected by the revolution created by Beckett.
Back to BTF's production: its stark, white set emphasizes the work's claustrophobia by having walls and ceilings that collapse into the vortex of a door through which only Godot's messenger can enter and exit. Each act is introduced with a fully darkened theater and a fury of noise that explodes in a climax of a flash of light, and the two main characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), played respectively by David Adkins and Stephen DeRosa, thrown onto the stage through two side entrances as if they're being sucked into a black hole.
Actually plenty happens. The two are a veritable vaudeville duo, entertaining each other and the audience with Marx Brothers-like antics and verbal quips. And their essential task, embodied in the title, is interrupted twice by the arrival of Lucky (Randy Harrison) and Pozzo (David Schramm), the latter of whom may or may not be Godot traveling under an assumed name.
David Adkins as brilliant as Vladimir, fully inhabiting the role as the stronger of the two, and Schramm's blustering performance (think Zero Mostel) and Harrison's intense Lucky humanize what may otherwise be staged as an intellectual exercise.
On opening night, the only weak link was Stephen DeRosa's Estragon. Perhaps it was a case of nerves, or needing more time to assume fully Gogo's persona, but DeRosa's comic performance, which certainly had its good moments, consisted mostly of line readings and stagey gestures, betraying a lack of inner focus, especially in contrast with Adkins's Method-ical investment in Didi.
While it may spell the end of theatergoing for the summer for thoughtful viewers -- how could one sit through a romance or a drawing-room musical after being challenged to the very core of what theater is all about by Beckett? -- it is an experience that any and all who can must undergo. Plenty happens. There's lots of coming and going. It's brilliant.
Seth Rogovoy is Berkshire Living's editor-in-chief and award-winning critic-at-large.
Randy Harrison is Lucky in BTF's Waiting for Godot [Photo by Kevin Sprague]
|
