The wait is over! West End stages Godot again
The Guardian Weekly|August 09, 2024
Samuel Beckett's opus is back, starring Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati. Will its tragicomedy match our cultural moment?
Michael Billington
The wait is over! West End stages Godot again

Godot keeps on coming. A play that on its London debut in 1955 was greeted with bafflement and derision ("another of those plays that tries to lift superficiality to significance through obscurity," wrote Milton Shulman in the Evening Standard) is now big box office. The latest iteration of Samuel Beckett's groundbreaker comes in September when Lucian Msamati and Ben Whishaw appear in James Macdonald's production at that temple of luxurious elegance, the Theatre Royal Haymarket. So what has changed in close on 70 years to make Beckett's play popular?

The short answer would be that both the theatre and the culture at large are very different now from what they were in 1955. One thing Beckett taught us was that plays need neither spacious plots, sumptuous sets nor multiple characters to hold our attention. We are also no longer taken aback by the idea that plays, like life itself, are inexplicable and incapable of resolution: if anything, we have grown wary of artists, politicians and philosophers who assume they have readymade answers to the conundrum of existence.

Bu hikaye The Guardian Weekly dergisinin August 09, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

Bu hikaye The Guardian Weekly dergisinin August 09, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY DERGISINDEN DAHA FAZLA HIKAYETümünü görüntüle
THE SAVAGE SUBURBIA OF HELEN GARNER
The Guardian Weekly

THE SAVAGE SUBURBIA OF HELEN GARNER

Over 50 years the Australian has become one of her country's most revered and beloved authors, writing as if readers were her friend, party to her most candid thoughts. Is she finally going to get worldwide recognition? By Sophie Elmhirst

time-read
10+ dak  |
March 07, 2025
Israel's block on aid raises health fears for underfed population
The Guardian Weekly

Israel's block on aid raises health fears for underfed population

Briefing the Israeli press after Benjamin Netanyahu’s order last Sunday to turn off the aid supply to Gaza - in an effort to pressure Hamas into accepting a change in the ceasefire agreement to allow for the release of hostages without an Israeli troop withdrawal - government officials claimed the Palestinian territory had several months’ worth of food stockpiled from earlier deliveries.

time-read
3 dak  |
March 07, 2025
Dam it! How eager beavers became the farmer's friend
The Guardian Weekly

Dam it! How eager beavers became the farmer's friend

A Cornish farmer is behind a change in the law to release wild beavers in England after witnessing the incredible benefits on his land

time-read
4 dak  |
March 07, 2025
Call of duty
The Guardian Weekly

Call of duty

This rural English village phone box was used fewer than 10 times in the whole of 2024-but Derek Harris sees it as a lifeline and is determined to save it.

time-read
8 dak  |
March 07, 2025
Santa Fe mourns the mysterious loss of Gene Hackman
The Guardian Weekly

Santa Fe mourns the mysterious loss of Gene Hackman

As New Mexico authorities investigate the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, their adopted home town of Santa Fe is grappling with the mystery of what happened to the couple.

time-read
3 dak  |
March 07, 2025
Ramadan should be a time for reflection, not date-scented shopping
The Guardian Weekly

Ramadan should be a time for reflection, not date-scented shopping

Supermarkets have wheeled out the 20kg bags of rice. High-street stores have popped hijabs on mannequins. Cosmetic companies are churning out products scented with pomegranate, cardamom, saffron and “sticky date” - at Lush you can buy Salam shower gel, Noor lip butter and a massage bar that apparently smells like a turmeric latte. All this can only mean one thing in our modern, consumerist world: Ramadan is upon us.

time-read
3 dak  |
March 07, 2025
Days of Gracie
The Guardian Weekly

Days of Gracie

After dodging toxic fans, 'nepo baby' jibes and her own projectile vomit, pop star Gracie Abrams explains why she's writing about our uncertain future

time-read
6 dak  |
March 07, 2025
The Guardian Weekly

I'm upset by my troubled mother-in-law's extreme views

I've had a terrible run in with my mother-in-law and don't know what to do about it.

time-read
3 dak  |
March 07, 2025
Only connect - The NigerianAmerican author returns with an ambitious, astute and moving exploration of female experience
The Guardian Weekly

Only connect - The NigerianAmerican author returns with an ambitious, astute and moving exploration of female experience

Novels had always felt to me truer than what was real,\" declares a character in Dream Count, the highly anticipated new novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

time-read
3 dak  |
March 07, 2025
Labour's aid cuts are wrong morally - and economically, too
The Guardian Weekly

Labour's aid cuts are wrong morally - and economically, too

Get right down to it and there are two reasons for thinking that cuts to Britain's aid budget to pay for defence are a seriously bad idea.

time-read
3 dak  |
March 07, 2025