Waiting for Godot is especially interesting in our times, argues poet, actor and now director Brian Sheffield. People do really seem to be spending their time waiting for something.
Originally written in French and first shown in Paris, Samuel Beckett’s most famous play is featured in Monterey County by Enchantrix Theatre, a perfect fit given the group’s history and its insistence on experimentation and fluidity. In this case, the audience can choose between as many as five locations.
Outdoors on the former Fort Ord grounds in Seaside is the stage for three performances, but the play also moves to indoor locations in Seaside and Pacific Grove. The run finishes outside again, in Big Sur.
Beckett is the child of James Joyce. And if Ulysses destroyed the novel, it was Waiting for Godot that broke traditional theater, stripping down the plot, characters, setting and the illusion of space and time. What’s left is an existence, in all its malaise.
The two main characters of the play – Vladimir (Cody Moore) and Estragon (Pervert Rat – a stage name) just carry themselves through the routine of the day. It’s their relationship that is at the core of the play.
“It’s the weirdest celebration of friendship ever written,” says Rat, who makes for a great Estragon – lamenting, over and over, the absence of goals in their actions.
“We will wait for Godot,” Vladimir emphasizes, never able to articulate that these words have any meaning. Each time Vladimir mentions Godot, Estragon moans with pain. “But I can’t go like this,” he says, to which Vladimir offers him a radish or a turnip.
Sheffield likes to see Vladimir as Albert Camus, angry but optimistic, and Estragon as time-obsessed and more pessimistic Jean-Paul Sartre, setting the play right in the middle of existentialism and its debates.
“The best description of the play I heard is it’s about two friends whistling together in the darkness,” says Sean Aten, who did set design for the play. “We are swimming in deep water, but the meaning doesn’t stick.”
Moore, who played Joseph Merrck in Enchantrix’s 2024 production of The Elephant Man, shines again on stage. Sheffield doubles as Lucky, and Marcus Edwards plays Pozzo.
WAITING FOR GODOT runs Saturday, Nov. 7-Sunday, Nov. 22. Various times; various locations. Pay what you can. enchantrix.net.