WINDHOEK– THE internationally acclaimed stage play, Waiting for Godot, by Irish playwright, Samuel Beckett, will be staged as part of Committed Artists of Namibia (CAN)’s 35th anniversary at the end of this month.
CAN, the longest surviving community theatre company established in 1979, has secured the exclusive Namibian performing rights from the Dramatic Artistic Literature Rights Organization in South Africa (DALRO ) of the play. This knockout stage work had been successfully performed since 1955 in many other countries of the world. The play, depicting living on the open road by two hobos waiting for a miracle to happen, is directed and adapted for the stage by Namibian Award winning stage director and internationally acclaimed playwright, Frederick B. Philander, with fourteen stage works to his own credit.
True to its declared public policy, CAN continues to produce stage works of a universal nature in its efforts to help entertain and educate Namibian audiences on the impact of world stage plays. Every time the group brings new stage talents to the fore in productions. This time the cast of Waiting for Godot consists of three newcomers, nine year old St. Pauls Grade 3 learner, Zabeth Philander, John Isaacs as Lucky the slave and Clerence Classen as Vladimir. The parts of Estragon and Pozzo are portrayed by senior CAN actors Felicity Celento and Frederick B. Philander respectively.
Currently the script of Waiting for Godot forms part of the University of Namibia (Unam) fourth-year drama students play study curriculum. Philander has adapted the play into a shorter version of the normally lengthy work into a two-hour play that will be staged on Wednesday 29, Thursday 30 and Friday 31 October at the Ultimate Theatre in Eldorado Secondary School hall. The performances start nightly at 20h00 and tickets are sold by the actors and at the door at N$100 per person.
Performances of plays such as My Children. My Africa by Athol Fugard, Eviction by Adam Small and King of the Dump by Frederick B. Philander, which has won the New York Radio Festival radio drama competition in 1996 by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), are some of CAN’S outstanding plays over the years.
CAN have been the first multiracial theatre group that broke the apartheid culture pillars at the then Southwest Africa Arts Council (SWAPAC) in Namibia in the early 1980’s prior to the dawn. The group then successfully performed Adam Small’s Afrikaans drama, Joanie Gallant-Hulle, as a form of protest theatre against the colonial regime.
Partial sponsors of Waiting for Godot include the FNB Foundation, Ricoh and Khomas Spare Parts.