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This is an archive article published on August 21, 1997

Still waiting, for Mr Godot

A mirror neither reveals life nor does it reflect reality. It shows you only what you choose to see. A perfect example of this is Samuel Be...

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A mirror neither reveals life nor does it reflect reality. It shows you only what you choose to see. A perfect example of this is Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Who, or what, is Godot?

Why does he never come? This question has haunted audiences ever since Beckett published his play in 1952. Even the actors in the play are stumped for an answer. All they know is that Godot is one of the finest plays written this century and for an actor it still offers the best roles.

Adding their weight to this belief are Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani. When they launched Motley Productions in 1977, Godot was the play that launched their careers. The first performance was on a rainy July 29, 1979 at Prithvi Theatre. Eighteen years later, and seven years since their last performance, they found themselves veering back to Godot on another rainy day.

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But what has now crystalised into an obsessive love for Godot, was initially mired in scepticism and reluctance. "The more we read, the more confused we were," says Gilani. Shah thought the play did not deserve the reputation it had. But they went ahead with the play by default as Motley wasn’t a proper theatre group and there were no actresses on the muster. Godot has only five male characters and can be staged almost anywhere. It needs neither music nor lights. The only prop is a tree. Even an imaginary one will do. "We decided to approach the play from an actor’s point of view and give the characters as much life as possible," says Gilani.

That approach stunned audiences, which in turn stunned them. "Since then, it has never happened that we started off with 200 people and after the interval found only 50 left," says Gilani. From the original cast of Shah (Vladimir), Gilani (Estragon), Tom Alter (Lucky), Roshan Taneja (Pozo) and Samir Arya (Boy), the only change that Godot has seen is the loss of Taneja. This time, Kenny Desai plays his part. And of course, the boy will be played by Vivaan. The original, Arya, is now a six footer and hardly suitable for the role of a five year old.

Waiting for Godot is about two vagabonds Vladimir and Estragon – who meet under a tree in a barren, country road to wait for Mr Godot. Godot appears to have the solution to all their problems. The wait turns out to be endless, but not futile. Their conversation covers the entire gamut between the profound and the absurd. In between, Pozo the exploiter enters with his slave Lucky, who is tied to a long rope. The only other entry is that of the kid, who keeps visiting them with messages from Godot asking them to hang on for another day. Godot will surely come. But he never does … and yet they keep on waiting.

The play, written in post-holocaust Europe, appears at first glance to be brimming with cynicism. "It may be of despair but it is not despairing. If for nothing else, then at least for the humour," insists Desai. "To despair for something, you must have hoped for it. And if you never hope for anything you will just carry on indifferently," adds Alter. "It is about hope in the midst of bleakest despair. No other situation could be more universal," says Gilani. He points out that if the play was negating life, the title would have been `Waited for Godot’. "But it is Waiting. The process is on. There is still hope," adds Gilani. "Despite the fact that Godot may not come, for the 100th time, humanity is such that it will keep on waiting," says Shah.

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Other than the signs of hope on the faces of the actors, the stage is full of symbols of hope the tree sprouts leaves, the boy returns and the tramps keep thinking. And from that thinking, has emerged an understanding between Shah and Gilani that Godot cannot be understood, only reacted to. The plot is universal, yet the interpretation is individual. "In that sense it is the purest form of drama. This is as basic as you can get," says Gilani. For example, for Gilani the tree represents a cross. But Shah feels it is a symbol of natural life, of everything that is pure.

The characters of Vladimir and Estragon may represent the conscious side of humanity. "Those who have decided to think and are thus faced with nothing but unending questions and misery," says Shah. For Alter, Lucky represents the modern man who was a philosopher-thinker at one time. "Now he has been reduced to an animal. Beckett may be making a comment about how the 20th century is. It has reduced everybody to the lowest level of thought," he says. Ironically, in the second act Pozo becomes blind and Lucky becomes strong. Times and fortunes have reversed. "Yet things remain the same. The way it happens in life," says Desai.

The play has succeeded because it offers fresh insights every time you read or watch it. "People who watched it 18 years ago still come because it is so relevant," says Gilani. Interestingly, the biggest audience has been children. "They don’t approach it with any biases or try to understand it. They just respond," says Shah.

Shah’s response to Godot has the realisation that no play can be understood by reading it a couple of times. "Where we have reached with Godot now is a generation ahead of where we started off," says Shah. "Beckett has never used three words where two would do. The wisdom of the ages distilled in a few sentences. In that sense it is like haiku poetry and connects with anybody who sees it," he adds. Alter finds the irony powerful. "The beauty of the play is that it cannot be pinned down. It works well because it deals with the human condition, no matter which country you live in or who your god is," says Alter.

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So far, Motley has staged around 60 performances of the play. The last time they performed was in 1990. So in a sense, the play is an emotional comeback. And it makes practical sense as well. Gilani hasn’t ventured on stage for the last four years. "Stage has its own devils, no matter how many times you have been on it. Godot is a landscape I know very well. Even if thorns prick, it will be thorns I know," he says.

And Shah is confident that their exploration will go on for the next 20 years. Today, they have accepted that Godot is not difficult, just elusive. Together, they are still waiting … for Godot.

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