2008-08-29 Seek and ye shall find

When this play was first performed in London, Harold Hobson, drama critic of The Sunday Times said it was 'a conversational necessity'.
Being a mere child at the time I though this meant it was good. I sat through it with my girl-friend, and it seemed to me to be complete gibberish. What does it mean? she asked. I'll tell you at the end of the performance, I replied, hoping for a denoument. I couldn't tell her, because to me it was meaningless. How many critics here tell you what it means?

Last year, aged 70 and professor of literature, I saw it again in a lauded production at the Barbican. I sat through the first half becoming more and more angry. Becket, I thought, is making fools of us all. At the Interval I walked out, and didn't come back. The play's message is simple: Most of us believe in God. We wait to eventually meet him. But there is no God. And we are wasting our time. Shakespeare said it so much more briefly and poetically in Macbeth. Life 'is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' Waiting for Godot signifies nothing. If you search for meaning I'm sure you'll find it. If you take the play at its face value, it's nonsense. Twice.