The 2004 Beijing International Drama Festival has put local theatre-goers in a serious bind: With so many enticing plays in so many theatres every evening, they have to make a hard choice every day.
But the Gate Theatre's production Waiting for Godot is worth a look. The theatre troupe from Dublin will perform at the Capital Theatre from May 13 to 15.
Waiting for Godot, one of Samuel Beckett's most famous works, is considered by the international drama world as the quintessential play of the 20th century. It incorporates many of the themes and ideas that Beckett had previously discussed in his other writings.
Critics believed that Beckett often focused on the idea of "the suffering of being." The play gives full expression of an existentialist, and Godot has been seen to represent one of many things in life that people wait for.
With its world premiere held on January 5, 1953, in Paris, the play got a slow start through word of mouth, but gradually won attention from theatre-goers worldwide.
Waiting for Godot was introduced to drama theatres and schools in China in the early 1980s.
Since then, a number of Chinese directors have tried a few productions with different interpretations of "Godot" and their own understanding of life's existence from different perspectives.
The Gate's Theatre's production of Godot, hailed by the international press during its extensive world-wide tour, is arguably the most authentic.
As the Irish Times comments, the Gate production "is definitive, not just in Irish but in global terms. It is probably the closest we will ever get to the perfect official Godot."
Directed by Walter Asmus, the cast includes Conor Lovett, Barry McGovern, Johnny Murphy, Alan Stanford and Fionn Curtis.
This festival was repeated at the Barbican Center in London and New York's Lincoln Center.
Over the last 20 years the Gate has successfully showcased Irish writing, acting and general theatrical talent by continually touring productions of the highest quality to theatres the world over.
(China Daily May 12, 2004)
