Waiting for Godot
Mar 29, 2007
(Walter Asmus, USA/France,1987, BetaSP, 137 min.)
Film will be introduced by Richard E.T. White, Theater Dept. Chair at Cornish College of the Arts
The first American staging of WAITING FOR GODOT was in 1956 for a Miami audience expecting slapstick. Unfortunately, the play immediately bombed. A year later it was performed in California’s maximum-security prison at San Quentin, and the 1,400 inmates who viewed it reportedly loved it—especially empathizing with “the wait.’’ The prison newspaper awarded it a glowing review. The production inspired the San Quentin Drama Workshop, and it can be said San Quentin is where GODOT got its actual American launch. Thirty years later, an SQDW-performed version was captured on film in Paris. Another twenty years on, NWFF is pleased to present this work to local audiences.
"Perhaps the best GODOT of all time." –NEWSWEEK