Village Playhouse Offers Limited Engagement of “Waiting For Godot”

Village Playhouse continues its 40^th season of community theatre with Waiting For Godot, an existential classic by Samuel Beckett. Performances will take place at 7:30pm on April 12 and 13 with a 2:00pm Matinee on Sunday, April 14, at Inspiration Studios, 1500 S. 73rd Street in West Allis.

In Waiting for Godot, two characters, Vladimir (Scott Sorensen) and Estragon (Joe Ferrie), wait for the arrival of someone named Godot who never arrives. While waiting, they engage in a variety of discussions about many topics as they encounter three other characters who add to the conversations.

As Beckett's first play, Waiting for Godot was written originally in French in 1948. Beckett subsequently translated the play into English himself. It premiered at a tiny theater in Paris in 1953. This play began Beckett's association with the Theatre of the Absurd, which influenced later playwrights who enjoyed a similar style of writing. In English only, it is subtitled as a “tragicomedy in two acts.”

Waiting for Godot will invite interpretations that are political, psychoanalytical, biographical, social, and religious, placing Beckett in various schools of thought, different movements.

“It is a game, everything is a game,” countered Beckett. “It should become clear and transparent, not dry. It is a game in order to survive.”

Under the direction of Elizabeth Havican, this production is stripped down and elemental as a staged reading.

Havican comments, “For a play about nothing where nothing happens, it was surprisingly relatable and applicable to my life. So many of the lines resonated with me, but the line that hit me the most was one of the stage directions. At the end of each act, Vladimir and Estragon say they are leaving, but the stage direction is ‘They do not move.’ That, to me, is the heart of this piece. They do not move.”

Rounding out the cast are Derek Jacobs as Pozzo, Scott Stenstrup as Lucky, Benjamin Meert as Boy, and Nicholas Hightdudis as the Narrator.

Throughout their 40th Season, anyone who was a part of the Village Playhouse 1978-1979 Season is invited to attend any of the 40th Season shows at no charge. Visit www.villageplayhouse.org for details.

General seating tickets for this special presentation of Waiting For Godot are $15. All performances at Inspiration Studios, 1500 S. 73rd Street in West Allis. To reserve tickets for Waiting for Godot please email waitingforgodot@villageplayhouse.org or call (414) 207-4879 to reserve a seat. Tickets are also available online at brownpapertickets.com/event/4191937.