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Friday, October 31, 2025
The play that changed my life: ‘Waiting for Godot revealed that less is more – it made me fearless’
Stage | The Guardian: Until I was 12 I was in the French school system, where theatre was Molière, Corneille, Racine. Going to the theatre meant The Sound of Music or My Fair Lady. Then it was decided I would switch to school in England. So, at 13, I arrived at Westminster school. It was 1968, and the world opened up.
5 comments:
Carolyn Burback
said...
Theatre really is what you make of it, because while this author got so much out of Waiting for Godot and was really inspired by the idea that less is more, a lot of people hate it for this exact reason. It really is a play where nothing happens, and that’s the point. People are going to make up their own minds about whether there is any valid meaning to the story and the realization that Godot isn’t coming, or if it’s just an unsatisfying trick. I think the idea is really interesting of the author keeping this principle in mind when composing music to isolate specific instruments. We have a tendency to get distracted by flashy gimmicks and add lots of exciting elements, when sometimes the most meaningful experience for the audience is something simple. Even that inspiration is a lot to extrapolate from the play itself, though; people pull different ideas from it.
The way that different people approach Waiting for Godot is always interesting with people either having a deep love and appreciation or a burning hatred for it. I appreciate that Zilkha had such an eye opening experience. I understand how it’s easy to forget that so much can be done with so little. I think that in theatre and any part of the entertainment industry there are places and companies that have these huge amounts of funding and support that are constantly looking for more or something glitzy and with a trick. We forget that there are people who do theatre and entertainment with a lot less. Theatre has been about using what we have or making do with it, so going back to the do more with less or just do less isn’t always the first thing that anyone who has the funds or support really think about doing.
Love it or hate it, Waiting for Godot is a fascinating piece in its attempt to tell a story in which absolutely nothing happens. While this irks some and delights others, I think what’s really important is that art like this exists in a concrete and well known way. The author says he saw Frank Zappa and was familiar with psychedelic music at the time he saw this production of Waiting for Godot. I think the psychedelic and jam music movements share a number of similarities with plays such as Waiting for Godot. One of the biggest gripes people have with jambands like the Greatful Dead or Phish is that their music doesn’t go anywhere, a common complaint being that they just “noodle around” rather than playing tight, practiced solos and choruses. I think this is similar to something like Waiting for Godot in how that play ostensibly doesn’t do anything but despite that it manages to fill its run time with memorable characters, conversations, and monologues. I think it’s a testament to the breadth and depth of artistic mediums such as theater and music that they can accommodate such a wide range of pieces under their banner.
At first, I thought this would have been about the Broadway production of Waiting for Godot that has been really popular lately. That this was instead about a school production was so awesome to me. I think, when you’re younger, you get to rely on these powerful stories written by professionals. This gives you the opportunity to be more creative elsewhere, while engaging with a quality text. I really appreciate Zilkha’s experience in that way. Recently, I saw a production of Alice by Heart at CMU by Scotch ‘n’ Soda that was really impactful to me. It wasn’t necessarily the story that impacted me though. I saw these students enjoying their time on stage together so much that it reminded me so much of what life is about, or at least what I want mine to be about. People that make this art should care for each other, and hopefully enjoy themselves while they do it. That’s what I hope my future will be like in theatre.
In highschool I read Waiting for Godot and i thought it was such an interesting concept for a show. It took me a while to truly understand it but after maybe my second time reading it I finally understood the show. There are so many different ways to approach performing waiting for godot and this was a well done way in my opinion, especially since it was performed by a younger audience. This whole show is hard to grasp for a young audience and it was even hard for me to grasp as a highschool senior, yet they did a pretty good job of it. This whole concept of essentially being stuck in limbo and waiting for god who is seemingly never coming is such an interesting thing to witness as they continue through the show. I really want to see this performed one day even though i’ve watched the recording of it and read it twice.
5 comments:
Theatre really is what you make of it, because while this author got so much out of Waiting for Godot and was really inspired by the idea that less is more, a lot of people hate it for this exact reason. It really is a play where nothing happens, and that’s the point. People are going to make up their own minds about whether there is any valid meaning to the story and the realization that Godot isn’t coming, or if it’s just an unsatisfying trick. I think the idea is really interesting of the author keeping this principle in mind when composing music to isolate specific instruments. We have a tendency to get distracted by flashy gimmicks and add lots of exciting elements, when sometimes the most meaningful experience for the audience is something simple. Even that inspiration is a lot to extrapolate from the play itself, though; people pull different ideas from it.
The way that different people approach Waiting for Godot is always interesting with people either having a deep love and appreciation or a burning hatred for it. I appreciate that Zilkha had such an eye opening experience. I understand how it’s easy to forget that so much can be done with so little. I think that in theatre and any part of the entertainment industry there are places and companies that have these huge amounts of funding and support that are constantly looking for more or something glitzy and with a trick. We forget that there are people who do theatre and entertainment with a lot less. Theatre has been about using what we have or making do with it, so going back to the do more with less or just do less isn’t always the first thing that anyone who has the funds or support really think about doing.
Love it or hate it, Waiting for Godot is a fascinating piece in its attempt to tell a story in which absolutely nothing happens. While this irks some and delights others, I think what’s really important is that art like this exists in a concrete and well known way. The author says he saw Frank Zappa and was familiar with psychedelic music at the time he saw this production of Waiting for Godot. I think the psychedelic and jam music movements share a number of similarities with plays such as Waiting for Godot. One of the biggest gripes people have with jambands like the Greatful Dead or Phish is that their music doesn’t go anywhere, a common complaint being that they just “noodle around” rather than playing tight, practiced solos and choruses. I think this is similar to something like Waiting for Godot in how that play ostensibly doesn’t do anything but despite that it manages to fill its run time with memorable characters, conversations, and monologues. I think it’s a testament to the breadth and depth of artistic mediums such as theater and music that they can accommodate such a wide range of pieces under their banner.
At first, I thought this would have been about the Broadway production of Waiting for Godot that has been really popular lately. That this was instead about a school production was so awesome to me. I think, when you’re younger, you get to rely on these powerful stories written by professionals. This gives you the opportunity to be more creative elsewhere, while engaging with a quality text. I really appreciate Zilkha’s experience in that way. Recently, I saw a production of Alice by Heart at CMU by Scotch ‘n’ Soda that was really impactful to me. It wasn’t necessarily the story that impacted me though. I saw these students enjoying their time on stage together so much that it reminded me so much of what life is about, or at least what I want mine to be about. People that make this art should care for each other, and hopefully enjoy themselves while they do it. That’s what I hope my future will be like in theatre.
In highschool I read Waiting for Godot and i thought it was such an interesting concept for a show. It took me a while to truly understand it but after maybe my second time reading it I finally understood the show. There are so many different ways to approach performing waiting for godot and this was a well done way in my opinion, especially since it was performed by a younger audience. This whole show is hard to grasp for a young audience and it was even hard for me to grasp as a highschool senior, yet they did a pretty good job of it. This whole concept of essentially being stuck in limbo and waiting for god who is seemingly never coming is such an interesting thing to witness as they continue through the show. I really want to see this performed one day even though i’ve watched the recording of it and read it twice.
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