Episode 230: Waiting For Godot

The Irish literary critic, Vivian Mercier, once described Beckett's Waiting For Godot as 'a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice.' Seeing it performed really brought out the humour in it though, enhanced by Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart's comedic timing. I did find it a bit hard to stay awake in the first act, as well as not being used to having to strain to hear the dialogue. No more cheap seats for me in future! They were awfully uncomfortable too. Incidentally, I loved the lighting at the end of both acts. It was gorgeous! It looked like it had been filtered through a dense network of branches, so the pattern of light and shadow on the stage had a really dreamy quality about it. Could have just been me, but I thought it was really beautiful. Tried to work on the coach trips to and from London, but I only managed about 300 words getting there, and while I did type out a fair bit of stuff in my handphone, I didn't write all that much while we were travelling back. We were seated on the upper deck, so the swaying just made me feel sick. Am going to nap for three hours, and then wake up and make a final push to get Super Monday stuff over and done with!