The Play
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is a play about hope that takes place on an empty road next to a barren tree. There are two aimless men, Vladimir and Estrogon, loitering and passing the time in discussion, and they are soon joined by two others, Pozzo and Lucky. The first act of the play lasts through one evening and the second act lasts through a second evening and is almost identical to the first. Whenever the subject of leaving their spot arises, we learn that Vladimir and Estrogon are waiting for the elusive Godot and need to stay at this particular spot on the road.
Throughout Godot there is a sense of timelessness and the characters are "Waiting for Godot", but they don't seem to know why they are waiting or what Godot will bring them. In fact, they don't even know who Godot is. We will discuss the poetic effect of the pairing of Godot and "Strange Fruit" and will place emphasis on the relationship between Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo presents himself as a brutal and degrading slave driver who is bound to his inferior slave, Lucky, by a rope. He can not see Lucky's humanity or the terrible affliction of dehumanization that underlies lynching and hurls many indignities at Lucky throughout Act I. Meanwhile, Lucky is attached to Pozzo by a rope that he wears around his neck. These characters are interdependent and they are bound together by a rope. In Act II, however Pozzo appears to be blinded and his greatness is gone, and Lucky, even though he has become mute, must care for him.
The nearly barren tree reminds them of a hanging tree and by implication a crucifixion cross. The tree dominates the stage background just as Godot dominates the lives; free choice and every expression of the four main characters. The play "Waiting for Godot" has been performed in New Orleans in the Lower 9 th Ward and is reminiscent of the survivors waiting for rescue from emergency rescue teams and the government. We will discuss the imagery and importance humanitarianism, the rope and the tree in the assigned texts and song as they relate to the stalled governmental response in post-Katrina New Orleans. Directed by Paul Chan, "the performances, by the Classical Theater of Harlem, took place outdoors in parts of the city particularly hard hit by Hurricane Katrina and slow to recover. In the Gentilly section, a gutted, storm-ruined house was used as a set. In the Lower Ninth Ward, where one of the largest black neighborhoods in a mostly black city was all but erased by roof-high water surging through a levee, the intersection of two once-busy streets was the stage" 1 0.
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