‘There’s Lots of Time in Godot’

Richard Schechner

Form… • The form is a spinning away, a centrifugal wheel in which the

center –Time- can barely hold the parts

• Godot is at the center of the play and outside it at the same time

Paralysis… tied…clichés • “I don’t seem to be able … to depart”, Pozzo says

• Vladimir and Estragon have definite appointments they must keep while Pozzo and Lucky are aimless, not tied to anything but each other

• Lucky’s speech is uncontrollable stream of consciousness. Pozzo’s comments are sets of set speeches, learned long time ago

Couples…• In Waiting for Godot, there are meaningful differences

between Vladimir and Estragon, Pozzo and Lucky; but even these shadings of individuation are seen only through the couple: to know one character, one needs to know both

Avoiding time… • Waiting is what the characters are after but what they want to

avoid most as well

• Their activities are keeping them from consciousness of the action of the play… waiting

What holds the play together?• Time, habit, memory and games form the texture of the play

and provide both its literary and theatrical interest.

Vladimir’s epiphany • Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping

now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us? Probably. But in all that what truth will there be?

Realization… • Vladimir knows everything and wishes he did not

• For Pozzo “the same day, the same second” is enough to enfold all human experience

• “tell him you saw me”… habits break, old friends are abandoned

• Pointless execution of orders

Pozzo’s epiphany • Have you not done tormenting me with your accused time! It’s

abominable! When! When! One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day he went blind, one day we’ll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day the same second, is that not enough for you?

Free Southern Theater Production

Different interpretation!

Games • Thematically meaningless

• Feed into the rich image-texture of the play

• They contribute to the non-plot

Let’s Go!