Theater of the absurd in Groningen: No waiting for Godot

Is that still possible, can you still put on a play in which there are only male roles in times when quotas are fixed? A cultural center in Groningen, the Netherlands, has a play because only men are in it. The argument is about the absurd play “Waiting for Godot” by the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett (1906-1989).

Only casting for men

The English-language theater company at the University of Groningen only invited men to audition for the five male roles. Therefore, the play cannot be performed in the university’s cultural center in March as planned. It is not acceptable that groups of people are excluded, said a spokeswoman for the center of the German Press Agency.

“As if I landed in an absurd dream,” director Oisín Moyne (26) told the daily newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden. He has absolutely nothing against women playing male roles. Only his theater company fears legal action from the foundation that administers Beckett’s rights. “We’re just a small society and we can’t afford that.”

Beckett, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969, published the play in 1953. It is considered the epitome of absurd theater. The two vagabonds Vladimir and Estragon wait in vain for a certain Godot. Meanwhile, they have conversations about life. (jbh/dpa)

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