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The Waiting (for Godot) is over in Newbury




The Waiting (for Godot) is over!

This June, New Era Players are staging a production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Later this year the play will be showing in London, but you can avoid West End prices, and that dash for the last train home, by booking your tickets for what has been voted ‘the most influential play of the 20th century, at a theatre very near you.

New Era Players Waiting for Godot Photo Ranjan Bhuyan
New Era Players Waiting for Godot Photo Ranjan Bhuyan

This play was first performed in Paris in 1953, and caused great excitement among its early audiences, as they tried to come to terms with a piece of theatre that was completely beyond the bounds of convention and familiarity. Although much concerned with concepts of hope and despair, Waiting for Godot has many comic moments: indeed, it is described by Beckett himself as a ‘tragicomedy.’

This is a rare opportunity to see such a classic of modern theatre. New Era Players pride themselves on offering variety, and are very excited to see this one coming together.

Mike Huxtable, the intrepid director, and his brilliant cast, are working hard on the intricate physical theatre required for this production. Beckett’s lines are absorbing and thought-provoking, and the visual comedy of the play is fascinating, as the two principal characters, Estragon and Vladimir, wait for the mysterious Godot. While waiting, they meet Pozzo and his slave Lucky, when the play takes on a surreal atmosphere with scatological humour peppering their unresolved conversation.

New Era Players Waiting for Godot Photo Ranjan Bhuyan
New Era Players Waiting for Godot Photo Ranjan Bhuyan

Beckett was a huge fan of Charlie Chaplin and much of the humour has the same flavour as Chaplin’s almost clown-like slapstick. Estragon is obsessed with his boots, for instance and Vladimir with his hat. They remove these articles of clothing, peer into them, prod and shake them, then put them back on repeatedly, with nothing resolved. There is more than a flavour of Laurel and Hardy. Meanwhile, the waiting goes on….

The New Era Players present ‘Waiting for Godot’ Thursday, June 20 to Saturday 23, then Tuesday 25 to Saturday 29, at the New Era Theatre, Andover Road, Wash Common.

This amateur production is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd, on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concord theatricals.co.uk

New Era Players Waiting for Godot Photo Ranjan Bhuyan
New Era Players Waiting for Godot Photo Ranjan Bhuyan

Tickets are £15 each and are available online at ticketsource.co.uk/new-era-players. For other enquiries, email the Box Office at boxoffice@neweraplayers.org or call 07919 916009. Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start.

By Sally Hall



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