WAITING FOR GODOT

“What are we doing? We are waiting. [...] We are waiting for Godot.” These issues first came up on the stage of the Parisian Théâtre de Babylone in 1953. Samuel Beckett's theatrical debut is considered one of the most important theatrical events of the 20th century. Seventy years after this event, Waiting for Godot on the stage of the National Theatre was staged by Piotr Cieplak. We meet the heroes on an empty stage — with a stone, a tree and the moon — and at the same time in eternity. They're lost. Sometimes they treat each other cruelly, sometimes they bend over each other, sometimes they scoff at each other unceremoniously. They live and wait. Because what can a man do? When from infinity does he stand face to face with the unknown, and for seventy years he has been playing in Beckett's drama? “Cursing, cursing, getting angry, however... wait — emphasizes Piotr Cieplak. — All this waiting for a Godot is fulfilled and revealed in the fact that a man gives another man a carrot and covers him with a jacket when the other person freezes. Ethical, philosophical, religious buildings are being built to somehow define it, and all this is a pound of lint worth without this basic gesture. The search for a fixed point in oneself, even a substitute for certainty, is essentially Job's and at the same time tragicomic. Beckett's drama ends with words and didascalies: “So what, are we going? /Let's go. They don't move.” “This is extraordinary! I see it as a kind of heroism. What do you call what makes them stay under the tree and wait? Why this courage?” asks the director.

“WAITING FOR GODOT” by Samuel Beckett National Theatre in Warsaw

directed by Piotr Cieplak, starring: Mariusz BENOIT, Jerzy RADZIWIŁOWICZ, Bartłomiej BOBROWSKI, Cezary KOSIŃSKI and child: Jan KMIECIK/ Franciszek KRUPOWICZ/ Jerzy KOZŁOWSKI

(for viewers 16+)