Rainn Wilson and Aasif Mandvi Take on ‘Waiting for Godot,’ the Play About Nothing — And Everything

During the 1953 world premiere of Samuel Beckett's absurdist masterpiece, Waiting for Godot at Paris' Théâtre de Babylone, the curtain came down about 40 minutes into the first act as audience members whistled and hooted derisively. While the critics were accepting of the play, it pre-sold few tickets for the American debut tour three years later in Washington and Philadelphia, prompting a move to Miami's Coconut Grove Playhouse for a two-week run starring Bert Lahr and Tom Ewell. Promoted as "the laugh sensation of two continents," it was greeted by vacationers with bafflement and described as a play where nothing happens. The reaction was so predictable that cabbies waited outside the theater for early exiters. Not surprisingly, the New York engagement was canceled.

"Nothing happens, that's the thing. It'll be interesting to see, when we put this up in front of an audience for the first time, how they respond. It's fun to make an audience uncomfortable because it makes them lean in and pay attention," says Aasif Mandvi who plays Estragon opposite Rainn Wilson as Vladimir in the new Geffen Playhouse production running Nov. 6 through Dec. 16. It is directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett and co-stars her husband Conor Lovett, as well as Adam Stein.

On a country road by a leafless tree, vagrants Estragon and Vladimir wait for an enigmatic figure named Godot. In time, they are met by Pozzo (Conor Lovett), who bullies his servant, Lucky (Stein). Later, a boy (Lincoln Bonilla/Jack McSherry), who works as a goatherd for Godot, informs them that his boss will not be coming and to wait for him tomorrow. The second act proceeds in similar fashion, inspiring Irish critic Vivian Mercier's notion that it's a play in which "nothing happens, twice".

Through the decades, the play has been catnip for actors, attracting notables like Robin Williams and Steve Martin, who were directed by Mike Nichols in a vaunted 1980s Lincoln Center production. In 2007, Broadway veteran Wendell Pierce performed Waiting for Godot in New Orleans' Ninth Ward to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina. There was also a 2013 Broadway production with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. Next year, another new production will feature the stars of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter.

The play's lack of conventional dramatic elements like plot, pacing and character arcs leave vacancies for actors and directors to fill, resulting in a theatrical Rorschach test. It can be interpreted as a political play about the tyranny of the ruling class or a philosophical drama about humankind's place in the universe. It can be a study on friendship, futility and the frustration of existence, or it can be none of those things, a conundrum to which Beckett responded, "Why people have to complicate a thing so simple I can't make out."

"Is it God? Maybe. Is it about capitalism? Maybe. Is it about the powerful versus the powerless? Maybe. It's all of that," offers Mandvi who is best known for his work as "senior Muslim correspondent" on The Daily Show. Winner of an Obie Award for his one-man show, Sakina's Restaurant, he has worked with noted director Trevor Nunn and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner. "It's not about analyzing it. Beckett gives you none of the traditional things that actors need, like the who, where, why or what. You get to make it up and that's freeing."

Wilson was an indelible presence and three-time Emmy nominee as snide regional manager Dwight Schrute in the hit show The Office. Before that, he studied theater at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and worked extensively off-Broadway, including his debut in a Shakespeare in the Park production of The Twelfth Night.

"I would compare it to Hamlet in that it has a universal, timeless quality," says Wilson. "You can see a thousand different Hamlets, and you're going to see a thousand different interpretations. You can see a thousand different Godots, and it's going to be different. I have a line in act two where I say, 'In an instant, all will vanish and we'll be alone once more in the midst of nothingness.' It could be a bone-chilling line that really touches someone's heart, or you can put a spin on it and it would be hysterical and get a laugh cause it's crazily over the top."

Judy Hegarty Lovett has directed 19 Beckett productions for Gare St Lazare Ireland, an Irish theater company founded by Lovett and her husband, who are recognized leaders in the staging of Beckett's plays and non-dramatic prose texts. In 2006, she directed all seven of Beckett's radio plays, and in 2021, she helmed a six-hour film of the Beckett novel How It Is.

"A lot of the guidance I've gotten from her is let it just be," says Mandvi. "She understands the pacing and the way the humor and the language work. She's also allowed for Rainn and I to discover this play through our lens as two individuals coming to this with our own interpretation."

Wilson is in awe of his director's expertise on Beckett and finds her to be a deep reservoir of knowledge. He calls Godot the greatest acting test he's ever undergone. "She's been very open to us playing, exploring, discovering. But it's very important to her that the words are spoken clearly, that they're spoken with a rhythm and tempo and honored in the way that they need to be. But the challenges are huge, both physically and emotionally. Sometimes the language is incredibly poetic, and sometimes it's as common as you would hear on the streets of Los Angeles today, and sometimes it's this crazy non-sequitur stuff, and you're like, 'What the hell are they talking about?'"

Wilson first encountered the play as a student at the University of Washington where he did a scene with a classmate named Holiday Reinhorn who later became his wife. "It's always held a special place in my heart," he says, recalling his first impressions of Godot. "I was 20, and I was not able to see the shadow, the darker side of the play."

For Mandvi one of Beckett's virtues is his ability to effortlessly alternate between heartbreak and hilarity. "What do we do to fill the time? We goof around and make up stories and abuse each other and hurt each other, we kiss each other and love each other and that's what Vladimir and Estragon are doing in this play. It's the experience of living in a real honest way. And at the end, it starts where it ends and ends where it starts."