Summertime in Bergen, North-Holland! The musings of the rainy springtime fade away, whilst hot sunlight and light clothing are making way for renewed enjoyment. A favourable moment to announce the posting of my second article in the Bibliothèque about the Theatre of the Absurd in its relationship to Levinassian philosophy.
I must confess: Waiting for Godot proved not an easy subject for an essay in comparative philosophical research, with its incredible series of subtly and/or crudely humoristic scenes with serious undertones. The resulting analysis is supported only by a small number of references – partly because I dispose here only of a recent reprint of the text with a different pagination, but especially in the hope of interested readers gripping the opportunity to take this highly original piece of daring theatre-making in their own hands again – or perhaps even for the first time. All comments with regard to the play itself and to my interpretations will be very welcome.
One thing I mentioned only in passing in the article may yet be worthy of your special attention. I am wondering what would be the outcome of a different mise en scène of the play: not at that lonely Route à la campagne leading nowhere, but in a busy shelter for homeless persons in New York, or even in a Parisian bistrot. I could imagine such a change of ambiance to lessen the shrill humoristic impact of the exchanges and create an climate more open to the gravity of the underlying problems of total human stagnation. As a theatrical analphabete I am not aware of any experiments of this sort having been made already – although they would perhaps be faced with prohibitive questions of copyright.