Latest news with #Godot
Indian Express
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Theatre of the absurd: 4 plays where nothing makes sense
What if a play made no sense? No plot, no clear message, no satisfying ending. Just strange conversations and a creeping sense that something's not quite right. That's an absurdist play. Many might ask, what's the point of an absurd play? That's exactly the point, there isn't one. It is a niche genre and deliberately so. It doesn't try to please. It doesn't offer answers. In fact, it's the absence of them that matters. Absurdist plays are made to frustrate, to unsettle, to leave us uneasy and unsatisfied. In a world that is obsessed with clarity and productivity, these plays do the unthinkable, they embrace silence and confusion. They don't offer meaning, they stare into the void and ask us to do the same. Waiting for Godot 'Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It's awful.' Two men wait. They talk. They wait some more. Nothing really happens. And that's exactly what Waiting for Godot is about. It perfectly shows how empty and confusing life can feel. Two men are waiting for Godot, but who he is, we never quite know. There are no explanations, no resolutions- just waiting. Beckett's shows that repetition is life. It's waking up every day and hoping that today will be different. This isn't a play about action, it's a play about the lack of it. The conversations go in circles. The days blur. Every moment stretches into the next with no clear direction. They wait. And in some way, so do we. Rhinocéros 'Solitude seems to oppress me. And so does the company of other people.' A rhinoceros charges through a town. Then another. And another. Eventually, nearly everyone has turned into one. This metamorphosis is a critique of herd mentality. The lone man, our protagonist, who refuses to transform becomes the tragic hero. The play's absurdity is in its logic- as more people become rhinos, their transformation starts to feel almost normal. This play shows how absurdity masks itself in ideology, and how easy it is for rational humans to trade thought for brute force. What's harder than standing alone? Staying human when everyone else charges the other way. The Balcony 'The pimp has a grin, never a smile.' In a brothel built for fantasy, men dress as bishops, judges and generals. Not for sex, but to feel powerful. Outside, a revolution is raging. Inside, power is just a game of dress-up. The brothel is a stage within a stage, where authority is not earned but performed. Power here isn't real. While, the revolution outside is tearing down real systems of power. In this play, fantasies blur with reality. And as the outside world collapses, the inside reveals something far more disturbing- that perhaps all power has always been just a performance. The Birthday Party 'What are you but a corpse waiting to be washed?' Stanley lives a quiet life in a shabby seaside boarding house. Then two men arrive. They say they are here for a birthday party. Balloons are mentioned. A drum is played. And just like that, everything unrolls. Stanley is interrogated, broken down, undone. But why him? Who are these men? The play offers no clear logic, only absurd menace heavy enough to suffocate. The pauses aren't empty. They're filled with dread. And the ending? Unresolved- just like life. Harold Pinter gives us no closure, because real fear doesn't follow a script. (The writer is an intern with
Winnipeg Free Press
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Local cast delivers bleak, brilliant Beckett classic
A recurring line that runs like a leitmotiv through Samuel Beckett's absurdist masterpiece Waiting for Godot is: 'What do we do now?' Well, in this case, not much of anything, other than ponder existential questions regarding happiness, love, loneliness and God, not to mention the frailties of the hopelessly mortal, fallible human condition itself. Shakespeare in the Ruins launched its second show of its summer season Friday night, with a rare local live production of Waiting for Godot, performed al fresco among the ruins at Trappist Monastery Provincial Heritage Park. CHRISTINE LESLIE PHOTO Vladimir (Arne MacPherson, left) and Estragon (Cory Wojcik) bicker and commiserate while waiting for Godot. The intimate 150-minute show (including intermission), ably directed by SIR artistic director Rodrigo Beilfuss, is performed in repertory with the company's ongoing mainstage show, Macbeth. Godot has puzzled and perplexed audiences ever since its 1953 première with its simple story about two seemingly homeless men waiting endlessly for the mysterious title character. Beckett's enigmatic narrative teems with non-sequiturs and mundane observations, in turn punctuated by snappy wordplay and the occasional, heartbreaking zinger that pierces the tragicomedy's lighter moments like a rapier. It's also not exactly a plot-driven drama, relying instead on strongly forged characters and their fleshed-out relationships as they form and then fall apart. Local thespians Arne MacPherson as Vladimir (Didi) and Cory Wojcik as his long-suffering pal Estragon (Gogo) prove a well-matched team, dressed in costume designer Anika Binding's ragtag suits and bowler hats, as they spar and bicker, bare their souls and ultimately cling to each other. Set/props designer Lovissa Wiens creates a barren landscape, including a deliciously industrial 'tree' wrapped in chicken wire and brambles, with cast-off shoes and junkyard garbage bags — even a broken TV set — strewn about the edges of the monastery, creating a desolate playground of decay. MacPherson — a founding member of SiR who dazzled as the title character during last year's production of Iago Speaks — compels as the duo's 'thinker,' although his matter-of-fact, often more rapid-fire vocal style, especially during his repeated references to Godot, invariably dilutes the absurdity of his portrayal. While it all boils down to personal taste, Godot — a mysterious, Oz-like figure — should be addressed with more solemnity and even reverence to create greater subtext, as well as a more pronounced schism between stark reality and dreamy imagination, the gap between what is and what can be in a world of bleakness. Despite this artistic choice, however, one of his final, blink-and-you-miss it lines, 'Tell (Godot) that you saw me, and that you saw me,' packs an existential punch of self-identity and validation; it's one of the play's most resonant themes — if not the very point of it all. For his part, Wojcik crafts a stumbling, carrot-loving tramp with the heart of a poet who gnaws on chicken bones and frets about such physical needs as sleep and comfortable boots. His razor-sharp timing and agile inflection help him toss off such salient lines as 'We are all born mad; some remain so,' as well as ruing 'Nothing to be done,' a key sentiment. Tom Keenan (King Duncan, witch and porter in Macbeth) crafts a powder-keg Pozzo, ready to blow, ferociously cracking his riding whip when he burst onto the stage with his battered, tethered slave, Lucky (Liam Dutiaume, marking his professional debut) midway through Act I. His compelling, volatile portrayal immediately pumps the show with larger-than-life theatricality, his declaration, 'I am Pozzo,' thundering across the ruins as he stands atop a large Tyndall stone block. CHRISTINE LESLIE PHOTO Cory Wojcik as the bootless Estragon A special bravo to Dutiaume for a brilliant, less-is-more rendering of his ironically named, white-wigged zombie, his sunken eyes transfixed as he dutifully obeys Pozzo's barked commands. The actor, also appearing as Malcolm and Witch in Macbeth, nails Lucky's big speech (following his shuffling dance), proving to Vladimir and Estragon his ability to 'think' by delivering a staccato word salad of nonsensical imagery, pithy bon mots and guttural utterances. Beilfuss's thoughtful blocking (which at times is overly static, as when Pozzo is seated on his stool for far too long) adds texture to his overall delivery, seeing Lucky climb onto the stone block to spew out words directly to the audience. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. His pacing might have been quicker — a tall order, to be sure — to convey Lucky's rising desperation, although kudos are owed to the actor for fearlessly attacking Beckett's knotty text. The show highlights the first joint professional stage appearance by Wojcik and his actor son Mackenzie (Witch in Macbeth). The latter makes every moment count as the goat-herder 'Boy,' delivering messages from Godot, his spot-on conviction and guileless innocence proving the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The play itself ends not with a bang, but a whimper. There is no resolution; Godot never arrives. While some pundits surmise that Beckett's play is about inertia, with a chaser of pre-supposed meaningless of life, Estragon's potent Act II question to Vladimir — 'Do you think God sees me?' — refutes the perennial argument that Godot is fundamentally a secular play. In the end, this cryptic conundrum will never be answered, and will continue, as it has for the last 73 years, to elicit a prism of interpretation by all those who see it. But that's probably just how its stable of all-too-human, flawed characters, as they grit their teeth and grapple with 'life,' would have liked it.
Axios
11-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
Inflation report suggests damage from Trump's tariffs isn't guaranteed
A run of better-than-expected indicators — including Wednesday's inflation report — so far point to a strikingly resilient economy. Why it matters: Those waiting for signs of a tariff-wrecked economy will have to keep waiting. Economists anticipate President Trump's policies, particularly those related to trade, will weaken growth and raise consumer prices. But how, when, or even if looks more uncertain than ever. State of play: Consider the economic news flow in recent days. The May Consumer Price Index came in cooler than expected, extending a monthslong streak of easing price pressures. U.S.-China trade tensions appear to have simmered down, with Trump touting a deal that will unlock critical minerals for U.S. manufacturers. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers Wednesday that U.S. tax receipts in May came in almost 15% above the previous year, despite cuts at the Internal Revenue Service. Stock prices are approaching record levels, less than 2% below the all-time high reached in February. The intrigue: The Wall Street consensus is that a tariff shock will weaken the economy and put upward pressure on inflation. Economists are just waiting for something to happen, much like the two characters in the play "Waiting for Godot." The huge question is whether the anticipated slowdown — Godot — shows up. What to watch: Many businesses are running down supplies brought in from overseas before tariffs took effect, shielding consumers from price hikes. Once that inventory dries up, retailers will have to face tough choices about how much to pass along to customers. Those front-loading effects have created an economic mirage of sorts, resulting in a demand surge that isn't expected to stick. Last week's employment report signaled some underlying weakness in the job market, including a surge of workers leaving the labor force. It's too soon to tell whether the exodus was a one-off. Yes, but: That doesn't mean there aren't warning signs out there. A bond market sell-off in recent weeks signaled a reversal of norms that prevailed in the 2010s: investors demanding more compensation to hold longer-term debt — a phenomenon partly ignited by higher deficits signaled by Trump's signature tax legislation. Interest rates are below peak levels seen at the height of the inflation shock, but they're still high enough to be considered restrictive on economic activity by many Fed officials. It's unclear how that extended weight will ripple through the economy. What they're saying: "Tariff-driven price increases may not feed through to the CPI data for a few more months yet, so it is far too premature to assume that the price shock will not materialize," Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, wrote in a note. The bottom line: The economy has somewhat painlessly adjusted to huge shocks in recent years, defying naysayers and recession fears.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hopes For Fed Rate Cuts Are Fading
The chances that the Federal Reserve will cut its influential interest rate in the next few months have diminished as data on the labor market has shown hiring staying resilient. Financial markets now expect the Fed to hold rates steady at least through July, whereas a summer rate cut was considered likely last month. Job losses induced by tariffs would pressure the Fed to cut rates. Some forecasters expect the job market to sour later in the days, waiting for the Federal Reserve to lower its benchmark interest rate is a bit like waiting for Godot: the arrival date for the long-anticipated monetary policy move keeps getting pushed into the markets scaled back their expectations for rate cuts again last week after a report on job growth showed the labor market staying unexpectedly healthy in May. The labor market's resilience takes some pressure off the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to boost the economy and prevent a severe increase in unemployment. On Monday, investors seemed sure that the jobs report indicated the central bank would not cut the federal funds rate soon, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data. Investors were pricing in an 83% chance the Fed's policy committee would hold its rates steady in the June and July meetings. That's up from 76% a week ago and 40% a month officials themselves have indicated they're in no hurry to chop interest rates, which would put downward pressure on interest rates on all kinds of loans. In contrast, President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded the Fed cut rates: he's asked officials to lower rates by an entire percentage point, rather than their usual quarter-point increments, and criticized the central bank for not cutting rates outlook for interest rates has changed dramatically since late 2024 when Fed officials went on a rate-cutting spree, lowering the key fed funds rate a percentage point over three meetings. In January, the Fed declined to cut rates again, leaving them high enough to be deemed "restrictive. " This means borrowing costs are high enough to drag on the economy and downwardly affect inflation. Fed officials have held off on more rate cuts out of fear that the tariffs Trump has imposed this year could push up prices and set off a fresh round of inflation. Since then, expectations for when rate cuts could resume have been on a roller coaster ride as financial markets and forecasters try to predict the outcome of the trade war: if tariffs drag down the job market enough to threaten a wave of mass layoffs, the Fed could step in and cut rates to help the economy. But if inflation remains above the Fed's target of a 2% annual rate, the Fed could keep rates higher for longer to force it economists predict the Fed will be forced to cut sooner rather than later. Economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics, for instance, downplayed the significance of the healthy job growth figures in May, noting that recent jobs reports have been heavily revised downward. The Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly revises its monthly jobs reports as new survey data comes in. The May jobs report downwardly revised job growth for the previous two months by 95,000, for instance."Mr. Trump's criticism of the Fed's current stasis will likely be proven right," economists led by Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon, wrote in a expects the Fed to make three quarter-point cuts before the end of the year as the job market the other end of the spectrum are forecasters at Deutsche Bank, who expect the Fed to hold off on rate cuts until December and make just one cut in 2025. DB's economists, using a proprietary AI tool, said speeches by Fed officials have become more "hawkish" lately, suggesting policymakers are more concerned with fighting inflation than they are with saving jobs. Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Winnipeg Free Press
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Wait no more
On a sweltering May afternoon, with an apocalyptic smokescreen descending upon the ruins of a burned-down monastery in St. Norbert, director Rodrigo Beilfuss leads rehearsals for a play that's frustrated him every day since preparation began in April. 'It's killing me in a beautiful way,' the artistic director of Shakespeare in the Ruins says with a smile. The work he's discussing is Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, a play that since its première has confounded, confused, delighted and enlightened audiences the world over. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Macbeth (Darren Martens, left) and Lady Macbeth (Lindsay Nance) are the sensual heart of Shakespeare's classic murder mystery. Called an 'acrid cartoon of the story of mankind' in 1956 by New York Times reviewer Brooks Atkinson, Godot opens on June 13 in St. Norbert, with an estimable cast led by Arne MacPherson's Vladimir, Cory Wojcik's Estragon and Tom Keenan's Pozzo. This season at the Ruins, the company is producing Godot in repertory with Macbeth, which opens tonight, directed by Emma Welham. Last produced by SiR as an award-winning feature film in 2020 as a pandemic pivot project, the Scottish-based play features Darren Martens in the titular role, alongside Lindsay Nance (Lady Macbeth), Tracy Penner (Banquo), Ray Strachan (Macduff) and three actors — Keenan, Liam Dutiaume and Mackenzie Wojcik (Cory Wojcik's son) — who will straddle the worlds of Beckett and Shakespeare by appearing in both productions. Welham, making her professional directing debut, says that like Godot, Macbeth is a challenging, layered piece of theatre that demands consideration of tragic structure, the presence of the supernatural and the masks its characters wear to cover their private selves. In complementary ways, both directors agree, the works wrestle with human nature, trust and the fallibility of the universe. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Emma Welham takes on the challenge of directing Macbeth. 'Throughout the course of the play — spoiler alert — Macbeth becomes a tyrannical ruler, and this show really asks the question of how we're willing to stand up to it. What are we willing to do to stand up against injustice? It asks the question of who we put our trust in and why,' says Welham, who just finished her first year at the National Theatre School's directing program in Montreal. 'The central image of the show I return to is when Lady Macbeth says, 'Look like the innocent flower / but be the serpent under't.'' Nothing is exactly as it seems, and as in Godot, the work calls into question what is ever knowable about the characters we watch onstage or meet in day-to-day life. At the rehearsal for Godot, the cast and crew are working their way through the particularities of the movement and dialogue in Beckett's two-act tragicomedy, so clearly described in the script that each time the slavish Lucky (Dutiaume) moves a muscle, it must perfectly follow — or blatantly ignore — the orders of Keenan's prim Pozzo. 'It's relentlessly specific,' Beilfuss says, again smiling. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Director Emma Welham (right) works with Darren Martens and Lindsay Nance prior to the opening of Macbeth. 'Can you propose a rhythm for us?' MacPherson asks the director after his Vladimir and Wojcik's Estragon ran through a playful tête à tête. Moments later, Keenan tests his character's coachmen's whip, and soon, Pozzo is smoking a pipe and discarding the bones from a bucket of freshly consumed St. Norbert fried chicken. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Nearby, Mackenzie Wojcik, his father and Dutiaume kick around a hacky sack in the shade of a monastery wall. After about an hour, stage managers decide it's time for a break, suggesting the cast drink water and take respite from the sun. 'I don't know where a logical place to break is,' Keenan says. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Darren Martens and Lindsay Nance get up to a bit of mayhem and murder in Macbeth. 'That's the problem with this play,' says Beilfuss, laughing. Ben WaldmanReporter Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
