Waiting for Godot (1952)

I admit to not having a full understanding. As a matter of fact, I read several reviews on Amazon hoping for enlightenment. Not much help there.

While some of the stark symbology would seem to evoke Christ, I wouldn't want to go out on a [metaphoric] limb.

The tree symbolizes the passing of time. In the first act it was leafless. In the second, it has leaves.

All four characters wear bowlers, which they seemingly exchanged for no apparent reason. Could this be somehow representative of Christ's crown of thorns?

The same for the boots. They didn't fit, they fit, they didn't fit... were spikes driven through Didi's feet? I'm probably reaching.

The men could not not wait for Godot. But neither, in their frustrated nihilistic existence, commit suicide. In our hearing they tried twice. I think we must assume they will unsuccessfully try again and again...

Reading the some of the other review convinced me that I must see a stage production. ( )

My favourite bit is when Godot arrives unexpectedly through the French doors and catches Estragon with his trousers down. ( )

Waiting for Godot in Antarctica

An audience gathers to preview a screening of a new version of this Samuel Beckett play. The directed striped his rendition down to bare existential black and white by filming in Antarctica and using penguins as actors. The problem of dialogue is solved by the technique of voice-over.

In the first act, two penguins stand on bleak, snow-covered ice. There’s a close up of one penguin. The voice-over says, “Nothing to be done.”

The camera slowly scans to the other penguin who waddles next to the first. His voice-over begins, “I’m beginning to come round to that opinion.”

The play continues in this manner. Occasionally, the two penguins rock back and forth in their stark, empty white world. When in the middle of the second act, a third penguin approaches, the two penguins waddle awkwardly to an icy hill and then toboggan on their stomachs down the hill and into the water.

After a soul-searching monologue, the third penguin also toboggans down the hill into the water. At the end of the play the two original penguins rock back and forth. One penguin says, “Well, shall we go swimming again?

The other penguin replies, “Yes, let’s go.”

But the penguins do not move.
( )

pretty entertaining way of saying nothing and everything all in one ( )

pretty entertaining way of saying nothing and everything all in one ( )