The Wood Demon Art Theatre presents: Waiting for Godot
I am thrilled to be working again with director Jacob Clary to present Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. I will be playing Vladimir, opposite my dear, true friend James Yeary as Estragon. Also starring Theon Weber, Sean Magee and Cecelia Jackson.
Getting into the meat of this play has given me ample occasion for reflection on the facts of mortality, decay, and the difficulty of finding purpose in this brief and aimless existence. It is true that the text is bleak, even draining. All the same, Beckett infuses the work with tiny glimmers of something resembling meaning, if not redemption. The first step in reconciling oneself with futility is to look upon it with honest eyes, eschewing the delusional consolations of hope, reason, and master narrative: "All I know is, the hours are long under these conditions, and constrain us to beguile them with proceedings which... may at first sight seem reasonable, until they become a habit. You may say it is to prevent our reason from foundering. No doubt. But has it not long been straying in the night without end of the abyssal depths? That's what I sometimes wonder." Vladimir is a bit of an armchair philosopher, or would be, if he had an armchair. Or a home to put one in.
The play is entertaining and even fun, but a very dark sort of fun. To meet life in its splendored difficulty with a spirit of daring, a life-affirming joy--whoever said that this should be easy?
We will be giving four performances:
at Performance Works Northwest: April 27th at 8 pm and May 4th at 8 pm;
at Irvington School (in the yard) on April 29th at 5 pm;
and at galleryHOMELAND: May 6th at 8 pm.
-- Jeff