Ends and Odds

For those who missed it, The Guardian reviewed the new production of Waiting for Godot currently being performed at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Alfred Hickling incorrectly suggests that this is the first production to make use of an all-black cast--corrected by keen Becketeers including Rhys Tranter from A Piece of Monologue--but rightly notes that it gives the play an unfamiliar inflection. He writes:

'Vladimir and Estragon become a pair of elderly Caribbeans shooting the breeze ("Nuttin' to be done"); or possibly a pair of broken-down bluesmen standing at a crossroads.

Inevitably, certain lines come loaded with additional significance. Estragon declares, "We've lost our rights." To which his companion wearily replies, "We got rid of them." In this reading, the play becomes a drama about subjugation. The pair endure routine beatings by "the usual lot", while Pozzo's domination of Lucky with a rope and whip could hardly be more explicit.'

The changes are perhaps more subtle than the reviewer suggests, the play having been translated into so many contexts that a racial/political overtone is not news. But it remains, I think, an interesting development for a country where race relations have been notably different from more famous settings such as South Africa and the United States. You can read the whole review here.