Two hapless understudies on a production of Waiting for Godot occupy their time backstage, trying to understand art, life, theatre and their precarious existence within it. Dave Hanson‘s hit New York comedy Waiting for Waiting for Godot receives its European premiere at London’s St James Theatre and, just before he flew back to New York, I got to quiz Dave about his inspiration for this debut play (bitter personal experience on a Los Angeles production of the Beckett classic: “Terrible. Boring. Underpaid.”).
At last night’s post-show Q&A, we were also joined by director Mark Bell (whose other hit comedy productions include the Olivier Award-winning The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy about a Bank Robbery) and the three-strong cast: The Fast Show‘s Simon Day (who plays Ester), and The Play That Goes Wrong alumni James Marlowe (Val) and Laura Kirman (who plays ASM Laura).
Other topics covered: how New York City moulds artists (and Seattle not so much?), which of the cast have served time as an understudy, how much the agony of waiting is a part of an actor’s life, theatre superstitions, the Meissner technique, collaborating on anglicisms, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and other influences, whether experience as an actor is helpful to writers and directors, classic British sitcoms like The Young Ones and Red Dwarf and Dave’s follow-up comedy about ghosts in a flatshare (sort of).
Have a listen to the podcast for further explanation on all points! Also below, watch my interval video with Dave Hanson, scroll through live Q&A tweets from the show account @wfwfgodot and producer Libby Brodie (@Libby_Brodie), and view Q&A photos by Peter Jones and production photos by Andy Tyler.
Waiting for Waiting for Godot runs at the St James Studio until 24 September 2016.
Interval video
Interval video @St_JamesTheatre with @ComicDaveHanson. Tune in @wfwfgodot @LibbyBrodieProd for Q&A tweeting 9.30ish pic.twitter.com/E3oWcbiqPC
— Terri Paddock (@TerriPaddock) September 5, 2016
Podcast
Q&A photos
Click to view slideshow.
Show photos
Live-tweeting
#WFWFG Q&A – Curated tweets by MyTheatreMates
Terri Paddock founded WhatsOnStage.com and the WhatsOnStage Awards, running the company and its events from 1996 to 2013. Terri is also the author of two novels, Come Clean and Beware the Dwarfs, and has previously written for the Evening Standard, Independent, The Times and other national publications. She is renowned for her 'legendary' post-show Q&As and also produces the annual Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and acts as a digital, content strategy and event consultant for theatre, producers and other clients. She tweets about theatre at @TerriPaddock.
