by Samuel Beckett
I read a lot of scripts for my job. It’s time for season selection/design, so it’s time to read scripts. It’s been cutting into my CBR review time. And then I realized: I’m still reading stories. Here’s one of those stories.
“Well? Shall we go?”
Act I
Two men, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), meet by a leafless tree near an empty road. They have a conversation that reveals they are waiting there for a man named Godot. They’re uncertain if they’ve ever met Godot, if they’re waiting in the right place, if this is the right day, or even whether Godot is going to show up at all. While they wait, they pass time in mundane activities, trivial conversations, arguments, reconciliations, and discussions of suicide.
Two other men enter. Pozzo is on his way to the market to sell his slave, Lucky. He pauses for a while to talk with Vladimir and Estragon. The four men proceed to do together what Didi and Gogo did earlier by themselves: nothing. Lucky entertains them by dancing and thinking, then Pozzo and Lucky leave. Vladimir and Estragon return to their mundane activities, trivial conversations, arguments, reconciliations, and discussions of suicide.
Vladimir thinks they’ve met Pozzo and Lucky before but he’s not sure.
A boy enters and tells Vladimir that Godot isn’t coming today, but will be there tomorrow. Vladimir thinks the boy has said this before before but he’s not sure. The boy departs.
Estragon and Vladimir talk about suicide and then decide to leave, but they do not move as the curtain falls.
Act II
The next night Vladimir and Estragon meet near the leafless tree by the empty road. They have a conversation that reveals they are waiting for Godot. They’re uncertain if they’ve ever met Godot, if they’re waiting in the right place, if this is the right day, or even whether Godot is going to show up at all. They pass the time in mundane activities, trivial conversations, arguments, reconciliations, and discussions of suicide.
While they wait, Pozzo and Lucky enter again, but now Pozzo is blind and Lucky is dumb. The four men do nothing. Pozzo and Lucky leave. Vladimir and Estragon return to their mundane activities, trivial conversations, arguments, reconciliations, and discussions of suicide. Vladimir thinks they’ve met Pozzo and Lucky before but he’s not sure.
A boy enters and tells Vladimir that Godot isn’t coming today, but will be there tomorrow. Vladimir thinks the boy has said this before but he’s not sure. The boy departs.
Estragon and Vladimir talk about suicide and then decide to leave, but they do not move as the curtain falls.
The End.
I think I know what happens next.
“Yes. Let’s go.”
Cannonball Read
OMG. My BA was an intentional, and terrible, attempt at getting a scenic design degree out of a university with no professional theater or interdisciplinary program.
Do I know you? Did you go to my undergrad?
Did you get your scenic design BA?
Not likely – I went to a land grant uni in the midwest known for its Architecture, agriculture & engingeering programs, and riots. It had a little theater program that kept from getting slashed by the state regents by keeping it’s head down – you didn’t get a BA or BFA in performing arts or theater, but in speech communication. The state sister school in the People’s Republic of Johnson County has the much more celebrated arts & theater program.
I got to meet Ming Cho Lee at the end of my senior year though . .
Sorry to be vague – if you email me as me at gmail, I’ll be more forthright.
I went to a uni in the upper midwest and got my BA in Speech Comm also. No riots; we are far too polite for that. Went somewhere else for an MFA. Always seemed to just miss Ming Cho Lee. Pretty sure I’ve been to JCCC for ACTF.