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Redtwist
Theatre > Waiting for Godot > Press Release > Show Photos > Reviews |
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HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED A finely nuanced, buoyant 'Godot'
Redtwist adds clarity to classic Iconic works like Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for
Godot" come
weighted down with so much baggage that you sometimes have to wonder
how any director and group of actors can gather the needed confidence
to free themselves from all the expectations and cliches, and begin
thinking in a fresh yet faithful way.  Recommended 3
masksJuly 2009 Theatre Review by Alan Bresloff steadstylechicago.com Redtwist Theatre presents "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett July 27-August 23, 2009.Most TV viewers know about the Seinfeld years and a show about "nothing" that was one of the biggest hits in TV history. Before "Seinfeld" there was Samuel Beckett, who gave us one of the most memorable plays ever, "Waiting for Godot", a play about "nothing". The production being staged at Redtwist Theatre, a small storefront on Bryn Mawr Avenue is done to perfection with only one complaint. The chairs in this theater are not made to handle a two and a half hour production. If you have padded bike pants, you might want to consider wearing them. Director Jimmy McDermott utilizes the very small stage quite well. We watch our two lovable tramps Vladimir (a brilliant performance by Mike Nowak) and Estragon (Bob Wilson) as they meet in the park to wait for Godot. Each day for many years they have met and argued, comforted each other and seek diversions to their lives filled with "nothing". Now they have a goal, to meet with the mysterious Godot. They plan and wait and each morning begin again. Each day they feel will be the day as they idly talk about "nothing" waiting for the time to near. Any distraction is a welcome sight as they are hungry and tired men with only this one goal. There is tremendous chemistry between these two fine actors and we as an audience find ourselves caring for them and about what will happen to them. The waiting is frustrating and exciting, boring and adventurous to them. Each day becomes harder, yet they have to wait for Godot, who will be there "tomorrow," or so they are told as each day comes to an end by the mysterious "boy," an eerie character played by Adam Shalzi. Along the way to this meeting, in the park they meet a Mr. Pozzo, a man of wealth or so it seems who has a servant who he mistreats greatly. Noah Simon plays the role with a great sense of comic timing and Andrew Jessop deftly handles the role of Lucky who doesn't say much unless he is asked to think, a very funny bit. The playfulness of these four men is pure magic and of course in the intimate Redtwist we are able to see their faces and eyes so clearly, we can see the emotion. Mr. Beckett was quite the wordsmith with his clever little quips. In fact when Lucky does his "thinking hat" bit, we almost hear where the "yada yada yada" from "Seinfeld" was born. This is a story of true friendship, ignorance, patience and wisdom but most of all how two men who have "nothing" find that they do have something. They have each other, and that ain't nothing to sneeze at! Being a small theater, the set is limited and simple, almost appearing to be backstage instead of the country road and park-like setting mentioned. There is a tree that looks more like a lamp and it is almost all black. Joelle Beranek's costumes appear to be period enough and possibly picked up at a rummage sale back in the early 1900's and stored in a basement until needed. Christopher Burpee's lighting allows us to greet each day anew with our tramps and see each day come to an end as we continue to hope and wait that tomorrow will bring what today did not. This interpretation by Mr. McDermott is unique in its form and will surprise many experienced Beckett viewers. It is well worth the uncomfortable seats, Back to top  Recommended, The Short List Kerry Reid, Chicago Reader Jimmy McDermott's bleak, plain version of Samuel Beckett's best-known play feels like a trial run for a production of Beckett's Endgame, right down to the bricked-over window in the warehouse/bomb shelter set (also by McDermott). Beckett himself said that Hamm and Clov, the master/slave, father/child duo at the heart of Endgame, were Godot's Didi and Gogo "at the end of their lives." Bob Wilson's Gogo is choleric and suspicious, while Mike Nowak's optimism as Didi tends to elicit hollow laughs--especially when he says, "What’s the good of losing heart now, that's what I say. We should have thought of it a million years ago, in the 90s." The two actors balance skillful physical slapstick with well-calibrated vocal inflections that subtly emphasize tiny differences between them, which is right to the point: in a blasted world, it's the little things that matter. Back to top  Highly RecommendedTom Williams, chicagocritic.com Veteran cast give depth to Beckett’s classic Redtwist Theatre continues to utilize many of the finest directors in town. The have enlisted Jimmy McDermott to mount Samuel Beckett’s absurdist classic, Waiting for Godot. Casting older character actors such as Mike Nowak (Vladimir) and Bob Wilson (Estragon) indeed made for a terrific production. Godot is a difficult show to get right and McDermott understands that the little details can make all the difference. From McDermott’s bleak black box set to Joelle Bernek’s bum-like costumes, Redtwist’s production is both engaging and artful. They got all the little things right. Samuel Beckett’s (1906-1989) Waiting for Godot is considered a seminal masterwork of 20th Century theatre moving the stage out of naturalism and into the existentialist world of the absurd. Godot features two tramps, Estragon (Bob Wilson) and Vladimir (Mike Nowak) who spend their days next to a tree waiting for Godot. They are trapped into a world filled with nothingness where waiting and killing time become their daily ritual. This is a ‘buddy’ play that is full of comic moments as the two bums invent games, routines and stunts to render their enemy, time, defeated. Such is the life many of us have. Mike Nowak and Bob Wilson exude a stage chemistry seldom seen on stage that is both empathetic and believable. Both demonstrate their polished talent as they smartly perform the clever vaudevillian routines making each movement, each gesture genuine and hilarious. Wilson’s Estragon sets up Nowak’s Vladimir marvelously. They were channeling the Marx Brothers or Laural and Hardy. The demands of their roles were excruciating yet they deliver every bit, every routine with nuanced charm and subtle humor. They played off each nicely. It is so refreshing to see two skilled actors so intensely ‘into’ their characters. Noah Simon as authoritarian bully, Pozzo was obnoxiously wonderful in his domination of his slave, Lucky, played with tight control and amazing consistency by Andrew Jessop. When the four interlock, some wonderful business emerges. Pozzo and Lucky offer a stark look into relationship modes. Yes, Godot is an intense and provocative work about companionship, dependency and the practice of patience and the unswerving power of hope. Beckett presents the dreary side of life here. Beckett and the five players deftly present a look at the pointlessness of man’s existence as the tramps’ daily goal is to pass the time waiting for a salvation that never comes. The pronouncement “Nothing to be done” says it all. Redtwist’s four main characters give depth to the observation that “nothing happens in Godot” is irony in its purest form. So much happens that nothing seems to happen—that is the art that Nowak and Wilson embody on stage. This is an “actor’s show” that ultimately is all about what is being done in front of us. Nowak and Wilson give a clinic on character acting—they were tremendous! Come see a most worthy and artful production of Beckett’s classic. Respect for the material wins. Kudos to McDermott, Wilson and Nowak for such a fine show! Back to top  Reviewed by Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune It Works. They say the mark of a true chef is how well he or she cooks an egg. Plays like Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" might be the theater world's eggs. Over-think them, and you're cooked. Redtwist Theatre's current production isn't bad. Under the direction of Jimmy McDermott, the dynamic between the two tramps, Estragon (Bob Wilson) and Vladimir (a nice chatty turn by Mike Nowak), brings to mind the kind of begrudging tolerance and ennui that can settle over a marriage like so much dirt from the road -- where the men stand day after day waiting for that blasted Godot. It works. So does Andrew Jessop's performance as Lucky; Jessop manages to be pathetically funny and heartbreakingly pathetic. For the most part, humor seems to be the missing component here, though it's not for a lack of trying. (Why is it that the hat-switching bit always reads funnier on the page?) At any rate, McDermott's production is confounding as ever, which is just as Beckett would have it. Back to top  ANTICI…PATION Nowak and Wilson bide their time Reviewed by Caitlin Montanye Parrish, Time Out Chicago Three stars Two men, Didi and Gogo, wait on a dreary roadside for a promised appointment with the unseen Godot. Over two days, they attempt to break the tedium with conversation, visits from the wealthy Pozzo and his servant Lucky, threats that they will separate after 50 years of companionship, and the arrival of a young man claiming to be Godot’s messenger. They wait, and they will continue to wait. Enjoying Beckett depends largely on whether you appreciate questioning the point (or pointlessness) of your own existence. But Godot’s existential angst can also be damn funny; the darkest moments in Redtwist’s Godot bring on not shudders but cackling. McDermott, pulling double duty as director and set designer, gives us a world of black stage partitions, a cable wheel and found objects: It all could well have been in the theater for 20 years. It’s a neat bit of reinforced purgatory, enhanced by Christopher Burpee’s startling lighting. Nowak and Wilson as Didi and Gogo, respectively, have a lovely rhythm but sound a single note, relying on a bleak wonder that never expands. Simon’s Pozzo, however, is a vicious delight. His sadistic windbag evokes a demented Harpo Marx, and it’s his moments onstage that fall most in line with Beckett’s vision of the play as a game. His only rival for power: Shalzi’s terrifying two-scene turn as the servant boy. Back to top  Four starsJust go see it. The Four Everymen of the Apocalypse Reviewed by Paige Listerud, chicagotheaterblog.com What can any critic say about a nearly perfect production? It is practically complete; it hardly needs anything from another source. Redtwist Theatre, guest director Jim McDermott, and its cast have achieved a faithful, yet visionary rendering of Samuel Beckett’s modern classic, Waiting for Godot. What flaws exist, are so minor as to be trivial and, indeed, may simply boil down to different interpretations. Far outweighing any trifling objections, this production comes off as such a seamless whole, that one identifies with every character presented, realizing Beckett’s complete commentary on the human condition. Noah Simon (Pozzo), Bob Wilson (Estragon), Andrew Jessop (Lucky) This Waiting for Godot looks backward as well as forward. Beckett’s greatest play is, without a doubt, informed by his desperate experiences in Europe during World War II. He ran from the Nazis, aided the Resistance, hid underground—enduring starvation, depression, suicidal thoughts, and the endless boredom and anxiety of waiting for salvation, from allies–from anyone. The barren landscape of the play, with its one tree, recalls the War’s environmental devastation. But that landscape also lies somewhere in our future, making Didi and Gogo, Pozzo and Lucky, four Everymen wandering in the desolate wilderness we are engendering right now. Mike Nowak plays Vladimir with a light, soft touch. He does not go for every laugh possible from his character. Opportunity for clownishness is foregone for a realistic portrayal of a man suffering from all sorts of deprivation, except total loss of memory. This production heightens Didi’s ordeal as a man who remembers in the vacuum of all the other characters around him. Vladimir is the most alone because he has almost no one to witness to his experience. The toll of it builds unbearably. Neither Novak, nor McDermott’s direction, do anything to relieve the audience of that. Even with levity provided by Gogo (Bob Wilson), one is impressed by how much Wilson’s gravelly voice and deliberate delivery lend his character gravitas. Estragon comes across more than ever as a Wise Fool. Is it stupidity that accounts for his moment-by-moment involvement in every pain, every bored agony, every miniscule pleasure, or a strange Zen-like acceptance that this moment truly is all there is or all that is left? Noah Simon’s Pozzo is surprisingly human, for all the awful things he says. His cruelty toward Lucky is appalling; his fatuitous display of culture and learning, hilariously pretentious. His overall self-absorption, whether in his grief over Lucky’s degradation or his recovery from that grief, is all too recognizable. This makes Pozzo less of a monster and more a man who truly knows not what he does. Which is monstrous—and human. Andrew Jessop’s portrayal of Lucky lacks nothing in technique. What goes missing is simply some depth of experience that will obviously develop in an intensely focused actor very well on his way. Also, a young actor in the role of Lucky suggests the devouring of the young in a way that an older actor in the same role would not. Youth under a shock of white hair also lends his Lucky an otherworldly presence, although it is otherworldliness constrained, oppressed, and capitulating to oppression. This begs the question whether some true genius has been wiped out in its youthful promise. We cannot know what Lucky was or what he has lost. It becomes the question that haunts this performance. I could throw superlatives at this production all day long. But why bother? Just go see it. Redtwist Theatre has fulfilled its mission to produce great drama in a little black box theater space. For a couple of hours during this play, that little black box contains the whole world. Back to top  Highly recommended Don't Wait Too Long to See This Play by Andrew Swanson, Cheekychicago.com If you would rather be caught dead than spend an entire weekend watching the Godfather trilogy because it just makes you antsy to sit through all that talking… You probably shouldn’t attend Waiting for Godot. Nevertheless, Redtwist’s rendition of Samuel Beckett’s classic tale of stamina, boredom and repetition is finely tuned and wonderfully acted. As in most productions, the set is a dark charcoal series of platforms creating a deep, dark space. The direction (administered by guest artist, Jim McDermott) sends these outrageous and fascinating characters zigzagging across the empty stage through unseen walkways of this seemingly foreign locale. The ensemble is lead by rock solid performances by Mike Nowak (Vladimir) and Bob Wilson (Estragon). Their love/hate, need/despise relationship is clear to the audience within the first few moments of their sharing stage space. The work of Noah Simon, who plays the elegantly evil Pozzo, is one of the play’s finest. He maintains a sense of dark-sided silliness that Beckett requires of his oddly beloved character. Associate Artistic Director, Andrew Jessop, is a terrific Lucky, who mesmerizes the audience with his split second polarity and Adam Shalzi’s boy is haunting and curious. He emotionally appears as more of a young deer than a boy – but, hey, it works. Here’s what Redtwist has to say about the production: “Two loveable and legendary tramps wait endlessly for that which never comes in this unique and visionary production by guest director Jimmy McDermott. His staging of this groundbreaking play, a recognized masterpiece of the 20th century, enlivens Samuel Beckett’s quintessential story of courage, endurance and hope like never before.” Back to top  "together
they make the two and a half hours we spend in their company pass
rapidly, indeed"THEATER REVIEW by Mary Shen Barnidge, 2009-08-05 It's a rare audience that doesn't have a working acquaintance with this enigmatic classic—whether in its heavy-metaphor version serving as anchor to many a repertory company subscription, or its absurdist-theatre-so-let's-clown-it-up version enamored of small post-graduate ensembles. But director Jimmy McDermott has found a third alternative to these well-worn interpretations, and the secret lies in his casting of middle-aged actors as Samuel Beckett's collection of pilgrims mired down in inertia by their—what? Faith? Despair? Is there any difference? The action—such as it is—opens in an existential void, represented by McDermott for this Redtwist production as an abandoned building, where a pair of homeless vagabonds meet daily to wait for a mysterious benefactor named Godot. This shadowy personage never keeps his appointment, but instead sends messengers bearing promises of his imminent arrival. ( "What if we dropped him?" one of the recipients asks, only to be told by his comrade, "He'd punish us." ) And so they abide, making idle chat and, on two occasions, playing host to a pompous visiting gentleman and his put-upon valet. Consider the physical condition of these men: Estragon suffers from sore feet and restless sleep. His comrade, Vladimir, is afflicted by incontinence and bad breath. The lofty Pozzo's eyesight is failing. All of them have trouble remembering things. Dress them up in gray hair or bald pates, and speeches too frequently shrugged off by younger players—as when Vladimir observes, "We have time to grow old," or Estragon expresses frustration at having survived his many brushes with death and contemplates suicide—take on an almost Pinteresque menace. "That passed the time." remarks Vladimir at one point, only to be rebuffed by the grumpy Estragon, "It would have passed anyway." "Yes," protests his companion, "But not as rapidly!." Assisted by the up-close vantage of their tiny storefront space, Michael Nowak, employing the slyly subtle facial twitches known in the trade as "eyebrow acting," and Bob Wilson, his deadpan face stripped of the paint he customarily wears in his capacity as Dada Dondi in the Soiree Dada troupe, deliver performances steeped in empathy-inducing intimacy, as do Noah Simon and Andrew Jessop in the more flamboyant roles of Pozzo and Lucky. Whether engaging in Marx Brothers-styled vaudeville shtick or thousand-yard staring into the empty universe that is our part in all this, together they make the two and a half hours we spend in their company pass rapidly, indeed. |
