--- layout: post status: publish published: true title: Talawa's Waiting for Godot wordpress_id: 1961 wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/2012/03/11/talawas-waiting-for-godot/ date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0xMSAxMDoxNDo0NiArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0xMSAxMDoxNDo0NiArMDEwMA== categories: - Literature - Samuel Beckett tags: - theatre - Beckett comments: [] --- <p>Yesterday I had the extremely good fortune to see Talawa's production of Samuel Beckett's <i>Waiting for Godot</i> at the Albany Theatre in Deptford. It had been hyped in the media as the first British all-Black Godot. While the ethnicity of the performers is integral to the performance and the skills, speech patterns, accents and mannerisms that they bring, it didn't need this hype. This <i>Godot</i> stood, for me, as simply the best production I have seen full-stop and that includes the Ian McKellan/Patrick Stewart run in London 2009/2010.</p> <p><img src="https://www.martineve.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Talawa_Godot.jpg" alt="Talawa Waiting for Godot" title="Talawa Waiting for Godot" style="width:750px;" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1962" /></p> <p>Indeed, I've never seen Vladimir and Estragon so mutually dependent; they built a rapport that genuinely felt like a conflicted friendship. The direction was right on cue; the hat switching was a clear parallel to each character's turn in the role of Pozzo; when Pozzo and Lucky are lifted, the symbolism of the two thieves was brought home. The company managed to oscillate between the comic low to the deadly serious with a fluency that I have never before seen.</p> <p>Of course, I would expect that many aspects of <i>Godot</i> must have a special resonance for the Black community; the legacy of slavery and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/09/half-uk-young-black-men-unemployed">continuing discrimination mediated through economics</a> cannot but be brought to mind by this production. The skill in this production lay, however, in making this more than a single-faceted, didactic piece, while still giving this the attention it needed.</p> <p>In my view, this production deserves to be on a run in the West End. The Deptford Albany must be commended for its intimate atmosphere and £8 tickets (that makes the theatre accessible to many who would not otherwise attend). However, it simply does not provide a wide enough reach for this excellent revival of Beckett's work. I don't hold out much hope that this will happen, but it was so good that I'd be happy to wait.</p> <p><i>Image © copyright Talawa. Used here for purposes of review and criticism under fair dealing to illustrate the production.</i></p>