Waiting for Godot – Review of 2025 Coal Mine Theatre Production

Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot famously opens with the words “Nothing to be done.” One may take them as a guide to the play that is tantalizing, incomprehensible and a minefield for scholars and theatre goers alike. What does it mean? The answer was given by Beckett. “What does it mean to you?”
Coal Mine Theatre offers an outstanding production of the play with an exceptional cast. The two tramps are played by Ted Dysktra as Estragon and Alexander Thomas as Vladimir. Jim Mezon plays Pozzo, the slave owner and Simon Bracken is his slave Lucky.
Dysktra is the pathetic Estragon who sleeps in ditches and is beaten by thieves or other tramps. We are not sure. Vladimir is an ebullient Vladimir who seems to find optimism amid nothing. They are of course in the middle of nowhere with a dead tree and nothing else around the barren landscape. They are waiting for Godot as they banter, philosophize and play games to pass the time which may stretch into eternity.
Jim Mezon’s Pozzo is a stentorian slave owner who has a rope around the neck of Lucky and a whip to drive him with. Lucky says nothing until he gets a long speech but becomes dumb in the second act.
The costumes are designed by Ming Wong. They all wear black bowler hats except for Lucky who wears a gray one. Vladimir wears a jacket, shirt and tie. Is he ready for the world as soon as Godot comes and tells him the meaning of life? Estragon has a long coat and non-descript tramp’s clothes. His shoes do not fit him and he is hopeless. Pozzo, loud and vicious, may represent us, humanity at its worst. You can decide on this and see different aspects of the play every time you see a production.
A Boy (Kole Parks) makes a tantalizing appearance twice. He has seen and been sent by Godot to reassure the tramps that he will come tomorrow. Parks speaks politely, clearly with assurance that Godot is real. You can use your imagination to figure out what the Boy represents. How about the hope of the existence of a Savior, of an all-powerful, all-knowing and loving God. The tramps know their New Testament and discuss the different versions of the Crucifixion related by the Evangelists. According to one Evangelist only one of the thieves that was crucified with “our Savior” was saved. Could that be the fate of Vladimir or Estragon? Perhaps the version where both thieves are saved is preferable.
It is noteworthy that Estragon says that he will walk barefoot like Christ. And more pointedly, Vladimir asks “Was I sleeping while the others suffered?” a question to be asked of God and Christ when we look around us.
Waiting for Godot can be produced as a comic work or at least arouse a lot of laughter. Director Kelli Fox does give us some comedy but she eschews the idea of playing for laughs.
The set by Scott Penner is as instructed by Beckett, a leafless tree in the first act and the same tree with a few leaves in the second act and a mound on the stage. I cannot heap enough praise on Fox and the actors for outstanding work in a difficult play.
The following lines by Pozzo struck me as being central to the nothingness of the play. Pozzo, who is blind in the second act and his slave is dumb explodes with fury and says:
Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It's abominable! When! When! One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more.
We are born, live and die in one second. How is that for a summary of our existence and the possible key to the play. Can we not take that a a comment on creation and a question to be asked of our All-powerful God and our Savious?
See this stunning production and decide for yourself.
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett opened on September 18 and will run until October 5, 2025, at the Coal Mine Theatre, 2076 Danforth Ave. Toronto, (northwest corner of Woodbine and Danforth).
www.coalminetheatre.com

Ted Dykstra and Alexander Thomas in "Waiting for Godot."
Photo: Elana Emer Photography

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