INTERVIEW: Yiddish-language ‘Godot’ opens in Sweden
Photo: From left, Shane Baker and Michael Wex star in Waiting for Godot. Photo courtesy of Ronald L. Glassman / Provided by licensed press officer.
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett is one of the most acclaimed plays of the last 100 years. The intentional abstraction of the performance enables many different interpretations, with different theater companies and communities making their mark on the story of two men waiting for… yes, that’s the question. What exactly are they waiting for? Who is Godot?
This revived Broadway season came with the new play Go over, which is a creative update of the story of Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu which addresses issues of race, systemic racism, spirituality and friendship. A few years ago, the Druid Theater Company presented the classic text at the White Light Festival in the Lincoln Center. And now Congress for Jewish Culture takes a Yiddish-language translation of the play on the road and presents its version at Dramaten in Stockholm this weekend. It will be the first time in the theater’s centuries-old history that a play in Yiddish will be performed on stage.
Performances for Waiting for Godot runs 13-14 Nov., and places are hard to come by. Two of the three performances are already sold out. Featuring in the production are Michael Wex as Estragon and Shane Baker as Vladimir, along with Allen Lewis Rickman, Luzer Twersky and Nicholas Jenkins, according to press releases. The play will be played in Yiddish with Swedish subtitles.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Wex as he prepared to travel to Sweden. Wex is a Canadian novelist, playwright, translator, lecturer, artist and author of books on language and literature, according to his official biography. Questions and answers have been edited somewhat for style.
What are your thoughts before you go to Stockholm for this exciting production?
They are basically a newly appointed ambassador: an odd mix of anticipation, excitement and just enough trepidation to keep the first two from flattening out. I’m not talking about fear, as much as the kind of increased sensitivity you feel before stepping onto the stage for the first time in a role you’ve never played before – except that I’ve felt it in recent weeks! The future of Yiddish does not really rest on me or this production, but I think we all feel like messengers to an entire culture.
What do you love about Waiting for Godot like a play?
If there has ever been a play that seems completely different, completely new, every time you read or see it, it must be Godot. The lack of verbal and physical embellishment, the constant recalls and poking away what can ultimately be felt but not expressed, gives it a freshness that has nothing to do with being up to date or reflecting current trends. It can happen anywhere, anytime; its real subject is far beyond anything that can be conveyed in standard dialogue or discursive language. Like life itself, Godot is easier to experience than to explain.
Do you feel that it increases its power to perform this classic play in another language? Does it change its interpretation?
After being written in French by a foreign Irishman, Godot can be said to have always performed in another language. What we English-speakers think of as the play is already a translation, albeit by the playwright himself, who did not hesitate to make changes based on the language he wrote in. I do not know that translation adds power to the play as much as it broadens it by emphasizing the different ways in which unspeakability can be conveyed.
How do you look at the character Estragon?
Someone with a need to be needed who is afraid he is not.
What / who do you think these characters are waiting for?
I completely agree with the author, who said, “I do not know who Godot is.”
Is the creative muscle you use to write similar to the one you use for acting?
Quite a lot, although it tends to drive different movements. Acting and writing fiction are different, but surprisingly complementary ways of not being yourself. Although acting is more immediate physical, they are both about living in someone else. The big difference, at least for me, is that my acting usually involves someone else’s someone else, while my writing tends to focus on my own.
By John Soltes / Publisher / [email protected]
Waiting for Godot, presented in Yiddish, will play November 13-14 at Dramaten in Stockholm. Click here for more information and tickets.