Sunday, November 07, 1999
'Godot' excellent, electrifying
THEATER REVIEW
BY JACKIE DEMALINE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
In its sixth season, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival at last ventures into the arena of 20th-century stage classics with Waiting for Godot.
Godot was worth the wait and then some. It is the festival's most flawless production ever, and it is the outstanding smaller theater company production of 1999 (as in smaller than Playhouse in the Park).
In a no-man's land, anonymous except for a pathetic tree, perhaps dead, perhaps not, ragged and dispossessed Estragon (Jeremy Dubin) and Vladimir (Giles Davies) wait. Wait for what? Purpose? Happiness? An answer to the meaning of life? They wait for Godot, who doesn't come.
Always, at the end of the day comes the promise that Godot will come — tomorrow. Absolutely. Without fail. Tomorrow will be better.
Godot was and is a chilling indictment of the worst of human nature — and at our worst we do nothing when we have the capacity to do everything.
That can include rising up and stopping bullies from commiting atrocities against their fellow men. But first we would have to be willing to actively change ourselves in even the most fractional ways (diet? exercise?) rather than wait for something to change us.
The genius of Godot is that playwright Samuel Beckett decided to make his messengers a pair of dirty and disheveled clowns. In perfect unison, Estragon shakes dirt out of his battered boot and Vladimir scratches at the inside of his hat. Vladimir searches through his pockets for turnips and carrots and radishes. Estragon sighs.
There's no mystery why Godot took six years to come to the festival. This is the first time artistic director Jasson Minadakis could cast it.
Mr. Davies and Mr. Dubin are new company members this season. That they both managed to keep their performances afloat in the sinking ship that was season opener The Tempest suggested they had talent, but there was no guessing they would be an electrifying stage team.
Mr. Davies has the elastic features of a classic stage clown and is breathtakingly light on his feet. The more compact Mr. Dubin boils with confusion and frustration. They share a perfect understanding of the mate rial and are equally adept at loose-limbed clowning skills, ably coached by Keland Grant Scher (who is just right in two tiny on-stage moments as Godot's messenger.)
Mr. Minadakis' direction is masterful. He gets everything right, including the long, thinking pauses. Silence isn't just golden. It's funny and nerve-wracking.
Perhaps best of all, Mr. Minadakis draws personal best performances from company founding members Nick Rose and R. Chris Reeder. They are bully Pozzo and his slave Lucky, respectively, who pass through and help our heroes while away the time even as they give an object lesson in man's inhumanity to man.
Mr. Rose, with bowler perched atop his shaved head, his delivery all teeth, seems to have stepped straight out of a political cartoon from the early part of the century. He is the embodiment of petty dictator, arrogant and cruel and in need of constant reinforcement. It's a terrific turn.
We've waited all year for a production of this quality, and it's in a quick, three-week run. See it.
Waiting for Godot, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, 719 Race St. Through Nov. 21. 381-2273.
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