Loyola’s theater department is bringing a classic Samuel Beckett play with a relevant twist to Loyola University’s community.
Opening Wednesday, Feb. 16, and running until Feb. 20, “Waiting for Godot” brings to audiences the path of finding salvation or just simply waiting.
The play surrounds two characters, Vladimir and Estragon. They converse on many topics of existentialist nature and interact with different characters while waiting for Godot’s arrival.
While traveling in the summer, director Laura Hope could not stop thinking of the recent events destroying the Louisiana coast. After a year, the BP oil spill still scars the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Knowing she was to direct “Waiting for Godot,” Hope decided to adapt those recent events to the play.
Unable to change the dialogue, she decided to change the setting instead. Under Hope’s direction, Estragon and Vladimir are seen cleaning up the oil spill with paper towels.
The most defined comparison between the two ideas was “the pain of waiting for someone to come clean up the mess,” Hope said.
Theater senior Priscilla Jenkins is excited to present the new setting.
Jenkins, who plays Vladimir, said that Hope had a great idea.
“I wasn’t surprised she went that way with the play,” she said.
She said the similarities of meaning in both the oil spill and the play are uncanny. Jenkins says that when Vladimir interacts with Estragon (played by James McBride) there is a lot of physical humor similar to the Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges. Jenkins is looking forward to opening night. “I’m significantly excited and terrified,” she said.
Kristen Diaz can be reached at
