I hope someone filmed the productions of Waiting for Godot director Paul Chan put on earlier this month in the open air of New Orleans. Wendell “Bunk” Pierce as Vladimir and J Kyle Manzay as Estragon, holding forth while waiting for that which will never come amid the slumped houses, skeleton trees, post-Katrina emptiness of the Ninth Ward had to be a pop-political event that should be available to cable and iTunes viewers everywhere.
Here’s Chan on why Godot and the Ninth Ward: “The sense of waiting is legion here. People are waiting to come home. Waiting for the levee board to OK them to rebuild. Waiting for Road Home money. Waiting for honest construction crews that won’t rip them off. Waiting for phone and electric companies. What do people do while they wait? They banter and entertain and it’s a form of keeping hope alive…”
Pierce says the location in this case really was the play. In fact, the theater company reportedly reserved seats for the performance for President Bush, Governor Blanco and FEMA officials—all of those they call the “Godots of New Orleans.”
Read more about the production at NPR and an excerpt from the play after the jump.
