Still waiting for Godot

It’s been 73 years since the first performance of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Vladimir and Estragon are still waiting.  The play though has become an established  icon of experimental 20th century theatre and millions of words have been written about it.  It’s currently running at Coal Mine Theatre in a production directed by Kelli Fox.  As far as I remember (and it’s been fifty years since I read the play) this production plays it straight and pretty much entirely according to the stage directions in the script.  The set is a tree and a bunch of dirt.  Nobody sits in a dust bin.  So everything turns on subtlety and timing which is quite a challenge.

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The Shape of Home

The Shape of Home is a show about the life and works of Al Purdy currently being presented by the Festival Players in the Studio Theatre at the Streetcar Crowsnest. Actually I think it’s about a lot more than Al Purdy.  It does tell his story and use his poems as song material but in the creative process something a bit magical happened. It was created during lockdown using Zoom with the creator/participants messaging back and forth with ideas, snippets of songs and (mostly dark) thoughts.  The creative process must have been gruelling and at times disheartening but the final result is a show of high energy, and humour.  But above all it’s life and art affirming.  Performed in the tiny Studio Theatre it’s also very intimate.  For the first time since the theatres reopened I felt I had got my old life back.

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