28 June – 1 July

There is a bare tree-like construction to one side of the stage and on the other side a telephone dangles from its box. Sat together in this empty landscape, ragged-trousered characters in bowler hats debate an apparently bleak and meaningless future:

‘What happens now?’

‘Nothing.’

‘What?’

‘Nothing happens.’

It looks and sounds very much like a sequence from Samuel Beckett’s most famous play, but these bedraggled figures are not Vladimir and Estragon. Here we have two women, Cordelia and Josie, and also Jack, who is non-binary. They have phoned the Beckett estate with a request to be allowed to perform Waiting For Godot and they are anxiously waiting for the response. A disembodied voice tells them that there are over nine thousand callers ahead of them in the queue, so they are clearly in for a very long wait…

Beckett strictly forbade any performance of Waiting For Godot that changed the sexual identity of its characters, and since his death in 1989 his estate has continued to enforce that rule. If female actors feature in the play they must perform their roles as men, or be in breach of copyright law. Theatre company Silent Faces see this as an outdated patriarchal restraint, and have responded with a play that seeks to dismantle any defence of Beckett’s stringent view. But Godot Is A Woman is very far from a dry LGBQT+ polemic, and it is certainly not in any sense an attack on the original play. As they have said in our interview, Silent Faces have ‘a shared admiration for Waiting For Godot and a genuine desire to perform it.’ Beckett is parodied, but with great affection, and their deeply felt pro-diversity message is delivered through some very accomplished clowning, verbal dexterity, and snappy choreography. There is a witty sound design that adds much to the general absurdity, such as when angelic voices accompany the descent from the gods of a copy of Waiting For Godot, which is repeatedly snatched away when they attempt to grab it. This is a show that recognises that the serious and the ridiculous are often very close neighbours.

Writers and performers Cordelia Stevenson, Josie Underwood and Jack Wakely are very engaging, and through much of its seventy minutes Godot Is A Woman is fast-paced and very funny. Its central argument is that Vladimir and Estragon are universal characters whose existential anxieties speak for us all. There is nothing exclusively male about their predicament, so why shouldn’t non-male performers play them? Towards the end there is a brief sequence that lists key gender-related societal changes in the 34 years since Beckett’s death, such as that in 2004 the Gender Recognition Act was amended to also apply to transgender people. This shift to a more solemnly didactic mood is unnecessary, for the serious message of this play has already been delivered very effectively amid all the preceding joyous nonsense. On post-performance reflection weaknesses may be found in some of the points made, but the main argument surely rings true.

Last night’s audience at Tobacco Factory Theatres was overwhelmingly female. That is a pity, for Godot Is A Woman offers much for men to enjoy and to ponder. The standing ovation it received was thoroughly justified.

★★★★☆  Mike Whitton, 29 June 2023

Photo credit: Ali Wright