Playwright: Samuel Beckett. At: Court Thaetre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Tickets: 773-753-4472 or www.courttheatre.org; $45-$65. Runs through Feb. 15
Samuel Beckett's 1953 absurdist drama Waiting for Godot has secured its place in theatrical history as a monumentally influential 20th century classic. But that doesn't mean that Waiting for Godot still can't be controversial or confound audiences.
I noticed the audience numbers thinned out a bit after intermission at a post-press night performance I attended of Court Theatre's new take on Waiting for Godot. There were also some mid-performance walkouts. But that's to be expected in a play without much of a linear plot and that indirectly asks so many existential questions about humankind.
Director Ron OJ Parson puts a slightly different spin on Waiting for Godot by featuring an all-African-American cast, though there is precedent since a similar casting approach dates back to a short-lived 1957 Broadway revival of the play. Parson's casting certainly makes specific lines and situations jump out with heightened racial dimensions ( especially in light of all the recent Black Lives Matter protests ), while other times it's all just universally human no matter the color of the actors' complexions.
There is also a slightly urbanized approach in Courtney O'Neill's set which features a crumbling sidewalk curb in addition to the specified basics of a crossroads path, a rock and a bare tree. It's as if the characters are representative of the urban decay surrounding them.
Despite the sometime repetitious and nonsensical dialogue, what should keep Waiting for Godot interesting and entertaining is the interaction of the actors who should be top notch comedians and physical performers. At Court Theatre, the actors are generally successful, though there is some room for improvement.
As the more cognizant of the two main tramps who bicker as they wait for a certain "Godot" to appear, the more physically active and quicksilver Allen Gilmore as Vladimir comes off slightly more successful than Alfred H. Wilson as Estragon. There were moments when it became clear that Wilson's physical comic timing was just slightly off, denying bigger laughs that could have been in store.
As the interlopers Pozzo and his exhausted and mute slave, Lucky, A.C. Smith and Anthonly Lee Irons, respectively, work well as a team. Smith's well-articulated pomposity as Pozzo in Act I is particularly fun and quite a contrast to when he's physically impaired in Act II. Irons injects some great pop-video moves into his one moment when Lucky gets to angrily lash out and babble on.
The Court Theatre's Waiting for Godot treads a fine line between entertaining purely on the actors' performances and seriously addressing the bigger, serious question raised by the text. No doubt it's not everyone's cup of tea, but this Waiting for Godot is definitely of its time—and timeless.
