Waiting for Godot

The Berlin Play Actors was one of Berlin’s most successful and entertaining fringe theater groups of the 1980s, presenting classics of the English-speaking stage in over-the-top, color- and gender-blind productions. The company’s inaugural production of the Beckett classic, while garish in costume and makeup and athletic in its staging, nonetheless strived for a faithful, almost reverent rendering of the author’s text. The unauthorized production was presented in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and in New York over its six-year run.

“Vladimir and Estragon rollick about the stage like two young outlaws, and there’s never a dull moment, neither for us nor for them. The way they handle the hopelessness and the absence of Mr. Godot makes us forget any ponderousness or melancholy. They are two entertainers who don’t just give lip service to the word ‘happiness,’ two masters in the art of living who know that their own vitality is the only thing they can hold out against the darkness of the world.”
- Botho von Plittersdorf, Neues Deutschland