Waiting for Godot

“At least it passed the time,” says Vladimir, referring to the moderately interesting master/slave duo who interrupted their habitual nothingness. “Well, it would have passed anyway,” replies Estragon. So goes Theatre Black Dog’s production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, in which two characters consider doing things and never actually do them. His style, later labeled theater of the absurd, was certainly groundbreaking in its own right, though it’s unclear why his plays needed to be so long. No one is on the edge of his seat wondering if perhaps this time Godot will show up. Pauses in dialogue bring the show to over two-and-a-half hours, though it’s hard to blame the actors for slow cue pick-ups when so many of those pauses were prescribed by the author. Even so, the silences could be used more effectively. Beckett has the potential for extraordinarily funny moments as well as thought-provoking ones. The production occasionally taps into this potential, but too often we get a still-life, picturesque staging in which a pause is nothing more than a pause. BRENT ARONOWITZ 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., also 2 p.m. Sun., April 20. Ends April 20.
Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sun., April 13, 2 p.m.; Sun., April 20, 2 p.m. Starts: March 27. Continues through April 20, 2008