The Hamilton Fringe Theatre Review: Breadbox Theatre’s Waiting For* Godot *Waiting For, Waiting For
By Ross
The stage manager arrives to set the stage and deliver a few coffees to a director who hasn’t arrived just yet. As played most delightfully by Sarah Soares, she’s completely anxious as she gets the table and the tree that she stayed up late making in just the right place, checking it out from all the different sightlines in the space. We are mere flies on her wall, as she carefully angles it before the unpacking and the waiting begins inside Breadbox Theatre’s wonderfully wicked Waiting For* Godot *Waiting For, Waiting For. It’s “just a rehearsal prop,” she states, in a defensive tone that carries with it all the nervous energy of the young stage manager that can radiate from someone trying to please and stay as professional as possible.
We feel for her internal vibrations, as she tries to stand as tall as her tree against the pushy, subtle arrogance of the first actor to arrive, the overcompensating know-it-all actor, played
marvellously well by Liam Lockhart-Rush (Outside The March/Musical Stage Company’s Dr. Silver: A Celebration of Life). He takes the art of acting ever so seriously, grandstanding his training in a way that makes everything that happens after all the more punchy and profound.
Next to arrive is not the director who will lead this gathering troupe of three through their Godot paces, but an actor who is of a whole different breed. Portrayed precisely by Adelaide Dolha (Night Light’s Foodie & Bobo), she embodies the type of actor for whom roles have come easily, even as she struggles to understand her true desire for the art of acting.
But it’s the third actor, beautifully embodied by the extremely compelling Jonah Paroyan (TMU’s 4.48 Psychosis), who is a bouncing ball of adorableness, having also found his path to the part paved with ease, probably due, in some way, to his genuine puppy dog eagerness that is matched by his openness and supposed talent. It’s a triangular clashing of personality types just waiting to set fire to the space, as they wait, and wait, and wait, much like the characters in Samuel Beckett’s well-known tragicomedy, Waiting for Godot.
The three actors and the stage manager dig into the surreal nature of this electrically stalled scenario. They stretch into the actors’ frame of waiting and warming up, fiddling around, and engaging in some brilliantly subtle barbed banter that elevates and ignites the tension. “Fun doesn’t even begin to describe it“, says one of the actors, and I couldn’t agree more, but from a whole different angle than was the intent. The stage manager questions the art of acting, as the three do a subtle dance of differentiation, showcasing their form and whistle that is themed with wonder and tight, enlightening engagement.
“So what now?” they ask. “We wait,” is the reply, and in that framing that Beckett so expertly addressed in his famous play, the true and deliciously unfolding, fueled by anxiety and competition, plays with its improv warming while waiting, as one gladiates with a fierceness that is both ridiculous and awe-inspiring. But in a surprising twist, the director, portrayed magnificently by the very compelling Braden Henderson (Breadbox’s The Bread Cycle), enters the room, overwhelming the space with his own version of anxiety, as far away from certainty as one could ever be, before discovering the crack and falling deep inside it. Will he or won’t he become the question of the room, and we wait alongside the rest, wondering most wonderfully where this wicked play will take us.
The pacing of Waiting For* is atypical and aggressive, while also playing with the space like dogs of all ages playing different games to please or show dominance. The overt oppositeness of the insecure pompous Lockhart-Rush and the easy-going, lovable Paroyan is the fuel and the flame that keeps the room lit up with their colliding energy. It slaps and stings, especially as we watch one feel the burn while the other bops along, almost oblivious of the hits he has made without trying. It’s as if ego were a ball that bounces around but can’t quite get caught by the one who wants it the most, while it just automatically rolls to the one who might know how to instinctively play with it in a more open and sharing kind of way. It’s no surprise that the vibe of Waiting For* Godot *Waiting For, Waiting For finally fractures the framing, as organic as those blueberries that are eaten and shared with love and affection.
Dolha’s role tends to get brushed aside a bit as these two actors engage in an off-balance match that only one player seems to be playing, and losing the more he tries. There’s some meatiness there that doesn’t get its full share of the waiting watch, but somehow the on-track caffeine-fueled stage manager almost steals the room from those who want the spotlight, and from the one who only might be wanting the wait as a type of parental rebellion. With some tightening of the focus and the framing, this 60-minute rehearsal room romp could find the extra solid branch strength to sproat something truly remarkable. As it stands right now, Breadbox Theatre‘s Waiting For* Godot *Waiting For, Waiting For is wonderfully enigmatic and a whole lot of fun. With a bit more focus and refinement, this clever, caffeinated romp could truly reach its full, gleaming potential—resonating long after the applause fades. “So you like it?” the stage manager asks pleadingly. “Yes, I do, fully and wholeheartedly,” and I’m not talking about that spunky tree.
