For those who know me, you all know I’m not one of those deep DEEP thinkers who can spew out philosophy or theory. I barely understood any of it my freshman year in Honors college. And for the more rounded theater people, it’s obvious this is what makes up the DNA for theatre of the absurd, a genre I find both unique and exhausting all at once. And to see the biggest piece of absurdism of them all feels like some kind of right of passage, especially when the script is all bare bones and you got someone like Jaime Lloyd who’s signature style is bare bones. But the final result of it all feels somewhat lackluster, and not even this staging could help me to understand what was coming out of anyone’s mouth.
If Lloyd is trying to present the ideas of life’s uncertainty, the absurdity of our existence on this planet. and that religion is something that, while many find comfort and hope in it, may just be putting up a mask to hide that there may not be anything out there at all that’ll save us, then it gets kinda lost in the endless pipeline that is the literal set (that set alone is the symbol of continuous and uncertain). Some of that may’ve also been due to sound because some sections felt muttered, and I don’t recall seeing any sign of a mic on anyone’s face onstage, but nothing being done up there could make head or tail of Beckett’s nonsensical and extremely heightened think patterns (and I’ve read his big three to no great avail). Maybe this just goes to show I’m not the biggest theatre geek out there or that I’m just not sophisticated enough, but I have no shame saying any of this because I know I’m well read in my own unique way and my mind has more to offer to the world without having to go all-too-intelligently big or go home.
I can say with certainty Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter have navigated and translated the text splendidly for themselves, with the perfect bromance chemistry oozing all over the floor. They know comedy, they know wittiness, and they know their characters and what makes them tick down to a T. They really are the reason you go to see this production not just ‘cause of their star power or “Bill and Ted,” but because they truly are versatile individuals who know how to play off themselves, other actors, and audiences like it’s no big deal.
There’s only so much I can say on “Waiting For Godot,” so until I can one day truly comprehend Beckett’s thought process and what he was looking to achieve or make sense of in his play that seemed to start a theatrical movement of it own, this is where I’m gonna have to lay down my pen when it comes to this conversation. I’m all ears anybody can break it all down for me as if I were back in my elementary school years because that’s the only way I think this play will get through my skull. As for this production, simply see it for Reeves and Winter’s excellence. It’s not the best Lloyd staging I’ve seen him conjure up, and it’s too early to say what Tony season has to say in terms of this one, but I’m not all too certain on it. But like many other award seasons, it could surprise me.
