![]() Vladimir's blue bandana mask and Estragon's cocked Mets cap make them instantly recognizable figures from the streets of New York (excellent costumes by Qween Jean), while the erratic light streaming in from the high window of Didi's basement apartment tells us of the unremarkable passage of days (evocative production design by Derek McLane). An occasionally frozen or fuzzy picture suggests an unstable Internet connection, perhaps the result of stolen Wi-Fi (film editing by Yonatan Weinstein). When a character needs a moment, he turns off his camera, leaving a black void with his name. If you gather from this plot description that not much plot transpires over the course of three hours - yes.ĭirector Scott Elliott has ingeniously reimagined Waiting for Godot for the Zoom era, without changing a single word of Beckett's script. Pozzo and Lucky indulge in the light S&M inherent in all employer-employee relationships, and then they are off, leaving Didi and Gogo to their waiting game. We suspect that the tower of bankers boxes occupying the corner behind him is full of Amazon stock certificates. Enjoying a bounty of wine and food, and decked-out in fur lapels, Pozzo is obviously one of those charmed individuals who has prospered during the pandemic. Their insignificant banter is interrupted by the arrival of Pozzo (Tarik Trotter) and his mostly mute servant, Lucky (Wallace Shawn). Tarik Trotter plays Pozzo, Wallace Shawn plays Lucky, Ethan Hawke plays Vladimir, and John Leguizamo plays Estragon in Waiting for Godot. Godot is an elusive figure who only communicates his regrets through a messenger boy (Drake Bradshaw's deadpan diction, delivered over an upturned flashlight, transforms this into a horror film during his brief appearances). Vladimir and Estragon (Didi and Gogo for short) insist that their purpose for remaining on the call is that they are waiting for Godot (here pronounced "guh-dough" rather than the heavy-handed "God-oh" of the last Broadway revival). "We should have thought of it a million years ago," Vladimir cheerfully observes, "in the nineties." Things are bad, but these stalwarts have come too far to lose heart now. It takes the form of a Zoom call between Estragon (John Leguizamo) and Vladimir (Ethan Hawke), here portrayed as graying Gen-Xers surviving Covid in their dingy New York City apartments, which are obviously rent-controlled judging by the antique state of the fixtures (Vladimir appears to have a Franklin stove). And because of that, you might truly for the first time understand the plight of the aimless characters in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, now a new film directed by Scott Elliott, available for streaming from The New Group. What other option is there? You have your ways of surviving the tedium, fine-tuned over this terrible year, just as Jeffrey Toobin has his. Sometime in the past year, you've perhaps been on a seemingly interminable video conference and thought, I can't go on.
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