Artist Waiting For Godot

A play that bound existentialism to nihilism in the layperson’s mind, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is easy to connect to but hard to explain. An alternately humorous and heartbreaking look at a pair of clueless clowns stranded in a bleak setting, Godot’s success hinges on the interpretation of its oft-stark language and lazzi-laden stage directions. Such is why it’s tantalizing to imagine King Clown Bill Irwin as Vladimir: He’s not only an unstoppable physical comedian, but someone whose other efforts (the recent revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, et al.) indicate he’s no stranger to darkness. Nathan Lane, always game for a heap of good mugging, plays Vladimir’s foil Estragon, and John Goodman, who finds some way to be at home no matter his locale, should do well as the blustery sadist Pozzo.