Trump’s Tramps
It’s often said that “timing is everything,” and given Trump’s election and risibly preposterous nominations for his anti-cabinet, the Geffen Playhouse’s premiere of Samuel Beckett’s 1953 Theatre of the Absurd classic Waiting for Godot is impeccably timed indeed.
One of the joys of L.A. theater is that live stage productions here often draw from La-La-Land’s vast pool of movie and TV talents, and this is especially true of the Geffen. Its current Godot revival stars Rainn Wilson (Dwight on the 2005-2013 TV sitcom The Office) as Vladimir or Didi, and Aasif Mandvi (a kooky correspondent 2006-2017 on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show) as Estragon or Gogo. Both put their finely honed comedic skills and timing to good use in this iconic absurdist play.
The proverbial curtain lifts at the Geffen with the thesps standing silently still on the darkened stage (lighting designer Simon Bennison subtly enhances the two-acter’s ambiance throughout) for a period of time, drolly referencing the play’s notion of “waiting” (and perhaps trying the patience of a few whispering members of the audience). The premise and plot of Godot – to whatever extent this two-and-a-half hour show has them – is that two men await beside what I presume is a road in the countryside for the arrival of a figure who they believe will “save” them; they are, but of course, referring to the eponymous Godot. Didi and Gogo resemble many of the homeless, unemployed people that fill Westwood’s streets, who some may consider “tramps.” But I imagine a more precise (and charitable) description is that they’re “hobos.” (Kaye Voyce, who has Broadway credits, designed their costumes.)
Rainn Wilson and Aasif Mandvi (Photo by Jeff Lorch.)
While languishing, the longtime companions pass their time kibbitzing, kvetching and complaining, but amidst their banter the astute ear may discern some rather insightful lines. Early in the first act, Gogo asks, “We’ve lost our rights?” to which Vladimir replies: “We got rid of them.” In light of the recent election results, when the majority of those who voted cast their ballots for the fascistic Trump and put the Republicans in charge of both houses of Congress, this dialogue early in Act I seemed especially salient and au courant. Sieg MAGA!
The passage of time is punctuated by the arrival of – no, of course not of Godot – but of the whip-snapping, slave driving Pozzo (played by Conor Lovett, a veteran interpreter of Beckett who has played 20-plus characters from the Irish playwright’s oeuvre), with his rope literally a noose around hapless Lucky’s (Adam Stein, who acted on Broadway, including in The Lion King, and with Steppenwolf Theatre Company) neck. Didi and Gogo interact with the malevolent master and silent slave, and at one point, Pozzo the putz quite remarkably bids Lucky to demonstrate his thinking ability. Whereupon the enslaved Lucky performs a dazzling, uproarious bit that evinces either his extreme erudition or fluency in what Mel Brooks might call “authentic frontier gibberish.” Either way, Stein slyly, skillfully steals the scene.
But not the show. As the two stationery hobos unable to move from their designated spot for their meeting with Godot at some unspecified time, Wilson and Mandvi’s comic gifts carry this two-act dramedy about the utter futility of being (and nothingness?). Their facial expressions and physical comedy often suggest an existential Laurel and Hardy; they are a pleasure to see and hear, and along with their co-stars, earned a standing ovation from the near capacity crowd.
Aasif Mandvi and Rainn Wilson (Photo by Jeff Lorch)
In addition to his longtime Daily Show gig, Mandvi has wide ranging big and little screen credits, including 2015’s HBO satirical series The Brink with Tim Robbins. Considering Godot’s philosophical subject matter, it’s interesting to note that Wilson exec produced and hosted the 2023 Peacock documentary mini-series Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss, a globetrotting rumination on the elusive nature of human happiness. In it, Wilson forthrightly wonders what the meaning of existence is and expresses his own quest to become happy. Be that as it may, Rainn revealed himself to actually understand how one can attain a sense of purpose in life by participating in a 2021 “Fire Drill Friday” climate change protest at L.A. City Hall led by legendary actress/activist Jane Fonda, where Wilso declared: “Let’s face it, 99 percent of celebrities are idiots, including myself. But we’re here to honor the people on the ground that do the grassroots work, the change-makers in the system.” Wilson went on to introduce Cesar Aguirre, from the Central California Environmental Justice Network. (See: https://progressive.org/latest/fonda-phoenix-bring-the-drill-home-rampell-200211/.) Wilson also turned in a sensitive portrayal as a would-be superhero in 2010’s Super opposite Liv Tyler and Elliot Page (then Ellen Page).
Director Judy Hegarty Lovett – who co-founded Gare St. Lazare Ireland, where she and her husband Conor Lovett hail from, an Irish theater which specializes in Beckett productions – expertly helms this production, which I strongly suspect she knows inside and out. Kaye Voyce’s minimal set, along with Mel Mercier’s eerie sound design composition, imbue the show with a bleakness worthy of Pozzo’s lash.
So, what does Waiting for Godot mean? What’s it all about? Unlike those Beckettonian Lovetts, I’m certainly no expert. But this is the second time I’ve seen Godot; in 2012 the Mark Taper Forum staged a revival, which also co-starred some notable thespians, with James Cromwell (Oscar-nommed for the talking pig comedy Babe) as Pozzo and Alan Mandell (2009’s A Serious Man) as Estragon. Beckett called Godot a “tragicomedy,” and in my opinion, the Forum’s 2012 production leaned more towards the tragic, while the Geffen’s current revival is more on the comic side, especially given that its two leads primarily have comedy backgrounds.
In an interview with Mandell, the Canadian actor told me: “I also played Lucky, with Beckett directing, in London, and I worked on the last major piece he wrote, Stirrings Still. I was very fortunate to be able to work with him.”
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Aasif Mandvi and Lincoln Bonilla (Photo by Jeff Lorch)
I asked Mandell if the name “GODot” was a reference to god, and he replied: “The play’s first director in Paris asked him about Godot, and he implied it came from the French word for ‘boot, ‘godillot,’ because there are references to boots throughout the play. When I asked him about Godot, he said he was in the south of France at the time, in the Resistance, when he wrote that, and Godot was not an uncommon name. No, if you thought it was God, that’s not what he implied.”
Mandell went on to describe Beckett as “oh God, the most generous, compassionate, caring, extraordinarily intelligent human being I’ve known. He just had an exquisite mind. I always felt he conducted, rather than directed. Everything was music — pauses were musical beats, silences were musical rests, a long silence would be two or three musical rests. He cared about each and every word. He’d want you to say ‘it is’ if he wrote ‘it is,’ not ‘it’s.’ Beckett had this great love of music, art and humanity.”
In a separate interview, Cromwell discussed Beckett and playing Pozzo: “[During WWII] he works for the Underground in Paris. He’s pursued by the Gestapo and has to flee Paris.
So Beckett’s pessimism – the darkness of his vision, to have lived through two world wars, to have lived in Ireland. The slaughter of the best and brightest in WWI, the absolute mindless pandemonium of the years between the wars, the complete evisceration of Germany which led to the rise of Hitler. The compromise of the Catholic Church with Hitler and the Concordant. And then in France, once the Nazis came – the anti-Semitism and class phobia of the French. They sent every Jew they could find out of France.”
Rainn Wilson, Aasif Mandvi, Adam Stein and Conor Lovett (Photo by Jeff Lorch)
RCM: “Talk about the character you play in Godot – Pozzo.”
“Pozzo represents an amalgam of a French landowner, an English gentleman farmer – the oppressor, the fascist, the capitalist. I patterned the role on Newt Gingrich. That’s my model; I think he’s the perfect Pozzo. Gingrich may be a little bit more erudite than Pozzo, but I don’t think he knows who Atlas’ father is, which Pozzo does. The bloviating, the mendacity, the cruelty, the self-serving egoism of the man is perfect.
“It’s interesting as an actor, because I know the audience and can feel their dilemma. They’ve just gotten used to Godot’s two guys and figured out that, ‘Oh yeah, they’re sort of stuck, but gosh, aren’t they funny?’ And we can laugh and have a good time and they dance and embrace each other – and then suddenly – ‘Babe’s dad’ comes on, with a rope around some guy’s neck. Pulling on him hard enough to pull him down, and calling him a ‘pig.’ So, they’re trying to figure out, ‘Is this funny, too?’”
Be that as it may, whatever Beckett meant in Waiting for Godot, one thing’s for sure: He, Ionesco, Genet, Albee, Pinter and other Theatre of the Absurd bards have stiff competition in 2024: Donald Trump, the new master of the absurd, who nominates completely unqualified candidates to cabinet posts: RFK Jr. to head the Department of Health, despite the fact that Hawaii’s Governor Dr. Josh Green alleges his vaccine-denying at Samoa is responsible for the death of many Polynesian children from a measles outbreak; Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General, despite the fact that the Department of Justice and House Ethics Committee investigated him for sex trafficking a minor; Tulsi Gabbard, who was raised in a kooky anti-LGBTQ cult and allegedly hobnobs with Syrian and Russian despots for Director of National Intelligence; Pete Hegseth, who successfully lobbied Trump for pardons of soldiers convicted of committing war crimes but opposes gender and racial parity in the armed forces, for Secretary of Defense; plus Elon Musk, whose acquisition and managing of Twitter has lost billions, to head a Department of Government Efficiency; etc.
But perhaps when it comes to Trump, a better and more accurate analogy than the Theatre of the Absurd would be Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty. In any case, while we’re waiting for Armageddon, although you may scratch your head in between laughs, more adventurous theatergoers can enjoy this first-rate production of Waiting for Godot.
FUN FACT OF THE REVIEW: In 1965, Samuel Beckett wrote and co-directed a short silent movie entitled Film starring – wait for it: Buster Keaton!
Waiting for Godot is being performed at 8:00 p.m. Wednesdays - Saturdays, and on Saturdays at 3:00 p.m., plus Sundays at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. (dark Nov. 27 & 28), through Dec. 15, 2024, at the Gil Cates Theater, The Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90024. Tickets and info Geffen Playhouse; (310) 208-2028.
The opinions expressed here are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions or beliefs of the Hollywood Progressive.
