Waiting For Godot | 3/5

SINGAPORE — Waiting For Godot is a play that allows for many interpretations.

It is one of the reasons the 61-year-old masterpiece — which, to oversimplify the play, is basically about two men waiting in vain for a man named Godot — has been staged so many times. It is also why audiences are still fascinated; and why literature students studying the text will continue to bang their heads against the wall for years to come.

But this particular interpretation of Waiting For Godot, by director Peter Reid, was not one that I enjoyed. For such a complex and almost inscrutable play, there was very little subtlety in this staging. Though the actual play does contain elements that make you wonder if you should laugh or cry in despair, parts of this production borders on the slapstick.

It’s a near miss, because there is a very fine line between having the audience laugh at the actors’ animated expressions and having people sense their own tragedy in their laughter. But it’s a miss, nonetheless. Also missing from the play is that sense of growing frustration or desperation from the two main characters Vladimir (Neill Fleming) and Estragon (Patrick O’Donnell), as Godot eludes them.

In fact, when I caught the show on the opening night, I could sense greater tension among the people sitting around me who became increasingly irritated with a girl in the audience who kept laughing loudly at inappropriate moments than what was happening to the characters in the play.

Perhaps Reid’s version of the play might appeal to those eager to see a livelier adaptation. After all, this is the second time this production is being staged in Singapore, after a successful run in 2012. But then, what is the point of seeing Waiting For Godot if you are going to go home feeling like your life hasn’t been touched, at least in some small way?

Waiting For Godot is on until Sunday, Nov 23, at the School Of The Arts Drama Theatre. Tickets from S$58 to S$88 from SISTIC.