BWW Reviews: WAITING FOR GODOT at Amun Ra Theatre

Taking a courageous leap of faith by tackling Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett's classic absurdist comedy, Amun Ra Theatre surmounts yet another artistic challenge. Directed with confidence and alacrity by Robert Kiefer, the company lays to rest any doubt that there's anything they can't do - and do magnificently. Waiting for Godot is one of this season's - or any season, for that matter - most controversial offerings, which is fairly high praise for a play that's more than 60 years old.

Keifer's superbly cast five-member ensemble delivers a performance that is compelling and provocative, bringing Beckett's rather nonsensical, although altogether shocking and introspective, premise to vivid life. Since its 1953 premiere, Waiting for Godot has left many of the world's greatest writers and thinkers pondering the meaning of Beckett's work; the significance - or perhaps insignificance - of the five characters; and the meaning behind the characters and their situation. Every word has been parsed, every exchange debated and still we are left to question and to wonder.

Certainly, you can approach the play primarily for entertainment, allowing Beckett's play to wash over you, as it were, or you might attempt to assign meaning for everything presented onstage before you. Whatever your approach, it's obvious that Beckett's brand of theatre does exactly what you want it to do to you: It can enlighten, it can illuminate, it can confuse the hell out of you. But perhaps most notably - like all good theatre - it will make you think.

Knowing that it was written in 1948 and 1949, I choose to interpret Beckett's work as a treatise on life in post-World War II Europe, with Vladimir and Estragon representing the millions of displaced persons seeking to reclaim their lives in the war-ravaged society, crafting new family units to replace those destroyed by war . And, clearly, Didi and Gogo are a family, of sorts, tied together by the circumstances in which they find themselves, just as Pozzo and Lucky are tethered to one another by happenstance as much as they are by the rope that connects them physically.

While Vladimir and Estragon wait vainly for their associate, Godot, to appear - with one day turning into another without warning or without change to differentiate one day from the other - you might construe that they are in some type of Purgatory. Could the overarching spectre named Godot represent their much-delayed, never-to-arrive salvation? And if that is the case, then aren't they already in hell and not in the way station that Purgatory most certainly must be?

Intellectually stimulating though it may be, Waiting for Godot isn't didactic or at all mean-spirited, although the visual of Pozzo, played here by a caucasian man, tethered to Lucky, played by an African-American man (the two of them are on the way to a fair at which Pozzo intends to sell his slave) adds yet another layer of meaning - white, anglo-saxon, Protestant guilt - to Beckett's play. And that may, at first, cause some discomfort for those WASPish patrons in the theatre.

Ultimately, however, your questions will remain; Beckett, himself, never offered to enlighten anyone about his play's meaning, arguing that what he wants you to see and to know is what is written on the page and presented to you onstage. What the play means, and you'll have to draw your own conclusions here, is highly personal and more reflective of the audience member's life than it is of the lives of Beckett's fictional characters.

Kiefer's sure-handed direction and the confidence he is able to instill in his exceptional cast guarantee that the Amun Ra staging of Waiting for Godot is well-received. Beckett's exquisitely crafted scenario and the musicality of his language ensure that inferior productions of Waiting for Godot will fall flat - and thanks to Kiefer's choices, this production truly soars.

Pairing two strong actors as Vladimir and Estragon is, of course, essential in delivering a truly outstanding Waiting for Godot and it is in the casting of these two characters that Kiefer excells. David Chattam (as Vladimir) and Joel Diggs (as Estragon) are two of Nashville's finest and most accomplished actors and they give such emotional and heartfelt readings of Didi and Gogo that you cannot help but find yourself thoroughly caught up in their absurdly told story. Their energy is palpable and the chemistry between the two men is truly exceptional.

Mark J. Thomas gives a startlingly impressive performance as Pozzo, giving a portrayal heretofore unexpected from him. His timing is precise, his line readings almost operatic in their dramatic tone and delivery. As Lucky, David Arnell's intensity is alarming and almost frightening; you won't soon forget his character's initial down-at-heels demeanor, particularly in comparison to his bombastic "thinking." Finally, young Ke'Mon Blanton makes a notable contribution to the play with his performance as The Boy, underscoring his innocence with fear and loathing.

The play's action, which takes place in some bleak, unknown territory, is visually presented through set designer Michael Mucker's interpretation of the setting, and Vera Warrick's costumes effectively clothe the characters and offer a more intimate view into who they might be.

- Waiting for Godot. By Samuel Beckett. Directed by Robert Kiefer. Produced by Dr. Jeff Obafemi carr. Presented by Amun Ra Theatre, 2508 Clifton Avenue, Nashville. Through May 9. Tickets are available online at www.brownpapertickets.com or by phone at (800) 838-3006.

To post a comment, you must register and login.