Academy Award nominee and three-time Emmy Award nominee James Cromwell (who will play Pozzo), Hugo Armstrong (Lucky) and LJ Benet (Boy) will join the previously announced prominent Beckett actors Alan Mandell and Barry McGovern in the classic tragicomedy “Waiting for Godot” opening at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum March 21, 2012. Written by Samuel Beckett and directed by Michael Arabian, “Waiting for Godot” begins previews March 14; performances will continue through April 22.
“Waiting for Godot” follows two days in the lives of a pair of characters, Estragon (played by Mandell) and Vladimir (McGovern), whose apparent purpose in life is to wait by the side of the road for someone named Godot to arrive. This simple act, at once seemingly futile and hopeful, asks basic questions of human existence, why we are here and what is our ultimate destiny.
“Waiting for Godot” features set design by John Iacovelli, costume design by Christopher Acebo and lighting and projection design by Brian Gale. Casting is by Erika Sellin and the production stage manager is David S. Franklin.
“Waiting for Godot” premiered in 1953, to be followed by “Endgame,” “Krapp’s Last Tape” and “Happy Days,” among others. In 1969 Beckett won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his plays, books and other writings. The famed critic Harold Hobson of The London Sunday Times wrote in 1955 after seeing the first London production of “Waiting for Godot” that the play is “. . . one of the most noble and moving plays of our generation . . . a play fused with tenderness for the whole human perplexity, with phrases that come like a sharp stab of beauty and pain.” He also stated, “It is bewildering. It is exasperating. It is insidiously exciting . . . will securely lodge in a corner of your mind for as long as you live.”
Tickets and information are available at CenterTheatreGroup.org or the Center Theatre Group box office located at the Ahmanson Theatre, or by calling 213-628-2772.
