I strongly recommend that you buy a ticket for The Godot Cycle – even if you don’t like the play you should go for the theatrical experiment. These two actors started at 6pm today (Friday) and will perform a continuous loop of Waiting For Godot until Midnight tomorrow (Saturday) and from what I’ve seen so far, I am definitely going back (as your ticket allows re-entry).

I saw the very first cycle of the play so at this point it is less about the experiment and more about the show but I couldn’t help watching it with this in mind. The thoughts of how some of those lines are going to take on so much more meaning at 3am this morning, or after 22 hours. The constant waiting and sitting around that the characters do will be exactly the same for the actors.

I asked myself; will they be able to maintain the same level of energy, how will they go to the bathroom and will people that venture to see it at 6am get the same quality of show as the 8pm viewers? My guess is yes because above anything these two remarkable actors are committed to what they are doing; to their characters, to the script and to being on that stage and fully present for 30 hours straight this weekend and 54 hours next weekend.

The quality of the show I saw was excellent. For the two hours of the actual show David Christos (Estragon) and Eric Craig (Vladimir) stay on the stage – only leaving to the side to get a drink of  water at what would be an intermission and at the end of the show. The other 3 cast members, as I understand, are rotating every 4 hours.

The set is simple yet effective and the staging of it in the parking lot is ingenious, it really adds to the atmosphere. The audience is free to come and go and I am definitely returning  to see how they are doing.

I commend all those involved in their bravery for trying something like this and I am just so very glad that it is actually good theatre. Imagine a loop for 30 hours of something terrible!

Details:

The Godot Cycle

Genre: Comedy, Drama
Venue 19 Honest Ed’s Underground Parking Lot (Site Specific at 581 Bloor Street W – entrance off Lennox)

30 hr.
Fri, July 8 6:00PM 1901
54 hr.
Fri, July 15 6:00PM 1902