FringeNYC 2013: Waiting For Waiting For Godot

Review by Gianfranco Lentini · August 21, 2013

“There’s nothing [everything] to be done” about Waiting for Waiting for Godot at the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival. Written by Dave Hanson and directed by Alex Harvey, this piece is not an adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot but an original and highly dignified new piece that finds its source material in Beckett’s work. Never having been a complete fan of Beckett or Waiting for Godot, I entered the Kraine Theatre throwing caution to the wind but was instantaneously swept away from the moment the production began.

Waiting backstage in their ramshackled dressing room, standby actors, Val (Dave Hanson, who doubles as the playwright of this piece) and Ester (Chris Sullivan), are eagerly awaiting the call that their moment has arrived to shine on stage in a production of Waiting for Godot – so quite literally, our characters are the comedic yet endearing depiction of the title of this piece. In the meantime, searching longingly for something – anything – to be done, this duo takes up a conversation so farcical in its nature that it preys on the conceptions and stereotypes of being an actor, or worse, a standby.

A commentary on the absurdity that is theatre, Ester explains to Val that the pursuit of show business (insert “There’s No Business Like Show Business” lip-sync and dance routine) is just the search for prestige. Through this self-realization and uproarious exploration of the “Meisnerly” and “Mamet” (pronounced Ma-May) techniques, what is the ultimate goal every actor seeks to achieve but the coveted agent – that’s right, the illustrious and elusive agent. Yearning for the chance to prove themselves worthy of the recognition of an agent and an audience, our pair of existentialists repeats mantras of “A true artist believes in himself above all else,” “Acting is difficult. An actor never should be,” and conclusively, “Art, that terrible whore.”

On the brink of a worldly understanding so monumental to our actors that this dressing room may implode upon itself, in stomps Laura (Amy Weaver), the assistant stage manager, romping her way throughout the dressing room taking care of her job. Confronted by Ester, who accuses her of malintent towards their lives as standbys, Laura enters the ring in a fist-to-cuffs battle that leaves us imprinted with an impression of a gorilla and a dramatic reading of a prompt book. Stepping on the toes of their creative process, Laura berates the idea of creativity and the capacity as just another person to complete the job where needed.

Leaving us speechless, Laura’s presence in this moment backstage magnifies the question we’ve all had since day one of reading Waiting for Godot – Does anyone truly know what the play is about? Becoming the majority’s voice, the non-actor looking from the outside in, Laura attacks the value of Beckett in the theatre while maintaining her worth before these two men as not only an ASM but as a woman. A catalyst for change in the decrepit scene of the dressing room, Laura causes this production to do a 180° leaving the audience to question, What does dedication to art mean?

Refusing to believe that there are shortcuts in life, let alone in theatre as a career, Ester continues to entice Val into becoming the actor he sees fitting. However, settling for the realization that what life consists of is waiting until someone makes his or her own move, the pain that is suffered in the name of art becomes meaningless. Challenging the age old saying that the show must go on, the audience must decide for themselves what are the rules we’re meant to follow and what dues we must pay.

Who is Godot? Who are our actors? Who are we? What is an idea? Where is the logic?

From the moment Waiting for Waiting for Godot had ended, I immediately resented my previously reserved hesitations. The resounding feeling I was left with upon leaving the theater was complete and irrefutable satisfaction in knowing that authentic and flawless art was still left to be created. Remembering this production after it’s said and done at this year’s FringeNYC, the truth it has spoken about humanity today will be its claim to fame. As Ester says, “Guess nothing. Know. Be. That is what we stand for.”