The funny side of ‘Godot’
DRUID THEATRE IS BRINGING A FRESH, FUNNY AND AFFECTING PRODUCTION OF WAITING FOR GODOT TO SLIGO
IN a world that’s gone to pot nobody could blame you much for wondering what it’s all about these days.
In times like this, it’s refreshing to realise you’re not alone in pondering life’s greater questions - Samuel Beckett did exactly that 70 years ago when he penned Waiting for Godot, a play arguably about nothing at all and everything.
Acclaimed theatre Druid is now bringing a fresh, funny and affecting new interpretation of the play to Sligo next week.
Regarded as one of the most significant plays of the twentieth century, it’s seen as a masterpiece that draws endless interpretations and Druid’s production has won acclaim from audiences and critics alike, and multiple Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards.
On a bare road in the middle of nowhere, two world-weary friends await the arrival of the mysterious Godot. While waiting, they speculate, bicker, joke and ponder life’s greater questions. As dusk begins to fall, two figures appear on the horizon.
Cavan born actor Aaron Monaghan, who plays one of the lead characters waiting for Godot, Estragon, believes we can all take a little solace from the production.
“We have this amazing new design and lighting box which has added a new element to the play.
“The Galway audience loved it. I would have said myself that everyone has an idea of this play, that it’s a very boring play or an existentialist play or could be very intellectual and hard to under- stand but it’s not,” he tells The Sligo Champion.
“It’s now given a fresh re-interpretation for audiences. We’ve heard from people who’ve seen dozens of versions and loved ours,” he says.
He’s also been approached by punters who admitted to having been dragged along by their partners and then “laughed their heads off.”
“It’s very comic, very physical. People have come back two and three times to see it so that’s very encouraging,” he says.
“We found something of ourselves in it. The more we dug into the play the more comedic meaning and tragedy we found,” he adds.
Druid’s Godot is currently on nationwide and international tour and indeed Sligo will be the last Irish theatre the production will play in before heading to Washington, Chicago and Edinburgh later this summer.
Aaron is no stranger to Sligo, one of the few venues on the tour the actors call ‘ home.’
“Sligo for us is a bit of a holiday. You judge a tour by the places and we love Sligo. We love Hargadons, all the pubs and restaurants,” he says.
Rehearsals can be tough going and the actors like nothing better than a soak in the Seaweed Baths at Strandhill afterwards, something that’s become their “tradition.”
“There’s always a sense of pride playing in Sligo,” he adds.
This production is directed by one of Ireland’s greatest theatre directors, Garry Hynes, whose fearsome reputation, Monaghan says, is “half deserved and undeserved.”
“It preceeds her but she’s a puppy dog really. She’s dogmatic in her pursuit of high quality. She doesn’t think of limits, she goes for it,” he says.
He says Hynes is one of the “best directors in the country and a great treasure of Irish theatre” with great attention given to detail.
“She’s a brilliant interpreter of text and has a way of working with actors. The way she directs us one day won’t be the same directions that she’d give you another day,” he says.
Isn’t this disconcerting? Not according to Monaghan. Hynes works with a “sense of truth every day.”
“It makes going out there every night very fresh and bold,” he adds.
Sligo Beckett fans can enjoy the critically acclaimed Druid Production in the Hawk’s Well Theatre from 6 th-7 th April, starring Aaron Monaghan, Garrett Lombard, Rory Nolan and Marty Rea.
Tour details at www.druid.ie