Last February when Kate Maguire, Artistic Director of the Berkshire Theatre Festival, gave a cocktail party to introduce the 2008 80th Birthday season, she was most excited to announce that "Waiting for Godot" would be one of the plays. The Countess groaned.....I know, I know....this play by Samuel Beckett is called one of the greatest plays ever, etc., etc. But the Countess likes beginnings and endings and Beckett has a distinct way of looking at life that I don't really understand. So I groaned....just a little bit.



Kate took my hands and said, "Countess, this will be one of the best nights of theater that you will ever see. I promise." and it was.



I went to one of the preview performances and loved every moment. David Schramm as Pozzo turned in a tour de force performance. He is larger than life in the beginning, yet somehow managed to be diminished by the end. Randy Harrison as Lucky moved me to tears when he danced his little dance and gave his soliloquy. Cooper Stanton is properly timid and fearful as The Boy. But it is Didi and Gogo, so wonderfully played by David Adkins and Stephen DeRosa, who capture you right from the beginning. They are Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton all rolled into two. They have perfect timing and play off each other as if they really had been together for 50 years.



Anders Cato, the director, has made a believer out of me, a Beckett agnostic. Pure genius, Anders!

So forget all the existentialism, all the intellectualism, and every other opinion you might have formed about this play and just enjoy the craft of acting, the beautiful language, the striking set, the dramatic lighting....and the music. Oh yes, Beckett doesn't allow music to be added to this play so Scott Killian, the sound designer, has piped music into the lobby, the veranda, even the bathrooms to get around that. Genius all!

Take a drive to the scenic Berkshires and see this production. What are you waiting for???

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