Review: GODOT IS A WOMAN, Pleasance Dome

With one hand it pens a love letter to Samuel Beckett. With the other hand it holds a middle finger to him. The chutzpah!

Famously described as a play where "nothing happens ... twice". Waiting for Godot, loved and loathed in equal parts internationally, features four male characters doing nothing other than waiting for the titular Godot to come. But you probably already knew this. As the three clowns of Silent Faces Theatre Company comment sardonically, "It's a classic."

Samuel Beckett's estate infamously do not allow for changes to be made to staging. Everything must be performed to the letter including Beckett's artistic demands to have the characters remain male and be performed by men. Godot is a Woman doesn't just lampoon his estate and snooty Melvyn Bragg-esque art critics for their aesthetic uptightness. Of course, they poke fun at stuffy copyright laws and authoritarian Beckett purists. But the joy and intelligence of Godot is a Woman reveals itself as it uses these issues as a springboard to meditate on wider issues about gender, sexuality, and the importance of art and self-expression.

It is also a lot of fun. It plays fast and loose with images from the play: bowler hats, carrots, uninhabited boots all beside a desolated country road. There is a sneaky sequence paying homage to Beckett's one woman play Not I, which consists of an abstract pair of lips isolated by darkness. The show itself is even bookended by the three clowns waiting on hold on the phone to the Beckett estate: Waiting for Waiting for Godot.

But it's not just for Beckett nerds. Some of the gags are inside jokes, but many are plain silly fun. In any case the three clowns' warm chemistry is delightfully infectious.

Unfortunately, we will have to wait until 2059 for Waiting for Godot's copyright to end to see a woman or non-binary performer do nothing twice on stage as Vladimir or Estragon. Some would argue that there is nothing to be done. Silent Faces theatre company would disagree.

Godot is a Woman plays until 28 August

Photo Credit: Ali Wright

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