1) How does time progress in this play? Is it linear or circular? Does the play progress from one day to the next or from one season to the next? I know the stage directions indicate that act 2 is "the next day" but how does that explain the "three or four leaves" (usually indicative of a change in season).
2) What is the relationship between act 1 and act 2? Are they, as we briefly mentioned in class, different versions of one another? I think there is a crucial shift that occurs when Pozzo shows up blind. Why reference this difference and what does it want to portray/highlight?
3) What is the purpose of juxtaposing a specific time (for example, the nineties) with the no-man's-land feel of DIDI and GOGO's landscape? Does this specific time serve to highlight the timelessness of the landscape, or does it serve as a ludicrous counterpoint to this strange world? Does it tell us anything about the actual nature of the landscape?
4) How have past productions defined/refused to define Godot? What incarnations or forms has "Godot" taken? We talked briefly about some examples in class but I would be interested to hear more.
5) Why can't any of the characters remember anything? Mike Nichols attributes this loss of memory to some kind of human nature (he talked about how he forgets things all the time), but I think these lapses might indicate something more interesting about the relationship between act 1 and act 2. Can their lapses support the "act 1 and act 2 are versions of each other" hypothesis? ie: they remember different versions of themselves as written by the author?
6) Does Beckett-the-author emerge as an implied character in the text through different re-writings or versions of the same day? If so, what are some ways in which we could represent this figure in our own reproduction?
No comments:
Post a Comment