When Shawn’s face creases and blubbers through a dozen different emotions, he recalls Bert Lahr (who appeared in the 1955 American debut of “Godot”), and when Lucky’s monologue unfurls, it is as an elegant musical suite of whimsy and woe. His cool hamminess naturally enslaves and engulfs the braying, tic-like demeanor of the predominantly silent Lucky. Trotter, still a fresh-to-the-stage thespian, more than holds his own with his veteran costars. As soon as he enters the quartered Zoom stage, his stateliness fills all four squares. There is a haughtiness to Trotter’s wide, toothy grin, and his record-scratching lyrical patter is irresistible. This becomes all the more apparent when Vlad and Go Go happen on to the erudite, enslaving Pozzo (portrayed with icy, rhythmic grace by Trotter of The Roots) and the enslaved, rubber-faced Lucky (Shawn).
When Leguizamo and Hawke trade chapeaux, scratch their imaginary bowlers and make Stan Laurel faces, it’s as if we’re transferred to a silent film comedy.īy keeping Beckett’s characters in (in)convenient squares, and occasionally pandemic-masked, director Elliott quietly explodes the deepest roots of Vladimir and Estragon’s intertwining isolationism while heightening mankind’s distance from each other and its absolute universality. Yet their movements are fluid, gently intrinsic extensions of each man’s personality (as well as their characters’ ever-present psychic quarantine), rather than mawkish improvisational studies. Sure, Hawke toys with literal monkey business when Beckett’s still-crisp script calls for it, and you can hear his every swallow and pucker as he slurps the soup of Beckett’s elastic language. As for Leguizamo, he picks his toenails and flails his arms like he’s voguing when he’s not offering oddly accented variations of the word ‘Adieu,’ or making himself crankily discontent at every turn.
When Estragon speaks of a life of compartments with no lack of a void, Leguizamo all but reaches out to mime the invisible wall - but masterfully pulls back, and doesn’t make the void so readily attainable.īathed in amber, taking place in Zoom squares (with title screen announcements, no less) filled with work-a-day tchotchkes, Hawke’s Vladimir and Leguizamo’s Estragon (or the more familiar ‘Go Go’ to Vladimir) play off the easy naturalism of the absurd (and their laptop cameras) with little scenery chewing. Learn more about our panels and additional events in support of Waiting for Godot, HERE.
Captions available in English, Spanish and French. Mostly that minor-case freneticism comes from Hawke playing Vladimir as a junior league, dude-abiding Lebowski – one more caffeinated than White Russian-soaked - and Leguizamo playing Estragon as a quirkily humorous bug with tender but twitching eyes, and just a hint of the dancer about him. Waiting for Godot features Ethan Hawke (Vladimir), John Leguizamo (Estragon), Wallace Shawn (Lucky), Tarik Trotter (Pozzo) and Drake Bradshaw (Boy).
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