Guest Blog: Playwright Dave Hanson On WAITING FOR WAITING FOR GODOT

I imagine an old movie starring Jimmy Stewart as handsome American playwright Dave Hanson.

Opening scene: A phone rings on a table, in the living room of a lavish New York apartment. Jimmy Stewart answers:

"H-hello? Yeah, this is playwright Dave Hanson. Yes, yes the author of Waiting For Waiting For Godot. Say, who is this, anyway? Libby Brodie? Of Libby Brodie Productions?! And you're saying you want to produce my play in London? London, England?! Well, gee, Ms. Brodie, why of course I'll do it! Thanks a million!"

He hangs up the phone and grabs his trusty, old, already packed, suitcase.

"My play is going to London!"

Cut to: A confused, but still charming, Jimmy Stewart wandering a crowded Piccadilly Circus, trying to figure out the exchange rate between dollars and pounds.

I'm preparing to travel to London for the opening of my play, Waiting For Waiting For Godot, about two understudies in a production of Beckett's play, waiting to go on. I've been asked how my play builds on Beckett's Godot and why I chose to do a showbiz parody. Allow me to explain myself.

I am not a Beckett scholar, nor was I raised on avant-garde theatre. I grew up a comedy nerd. When the other kids were playing baseball or reading comic books, I was watching Monty Python and Mel Brooks movies, enjoying the hilarious send-ups of cultural icons like Jesus, the Roman Empire, the American Wild West and King Arthur's court. I was discovering the fine arts of reference jokes, and parody.

When I did discover theatre, it was comedy that sucked me in. The plays of Neil Simon, Christopher Durang and Tom Stoppard gave me a voice in the theatre, first as a performer, and later as a writer. And it was my education in comedy that allowed me to stand out as an artist, performing stand-up, writing for television and, eventually, writing theatre.

But then Samuel Beckett, arriving from the dark side of the comedy moon, ruined me. Or exposed what was already ruined inside of me. Like some bizarro version of Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Brothers. An absurd genius of conscious thought with the vocabulary to express itself. I didn't know you were allowed to write that way!

There's a strange effect when you ingest Beckett's work over and over again. The world around you starts to transform into the absurdist reality you're reading. Things get a little darker, pursuits seem a little more useless and every action carries its own sardonic irony. And then you stop reading it, the world snaps back to how it was... almost.

This happened to me when I was cast as an understudy for a terrible production of Waiting For Godot in Los Angeles, many years ago. I sat backstage, for no pay, almost no rehearsal time and no guaranteed performances, and came to the panicked realization that I was living Beckett's play. I was my own parody and reference joke. But since my first love is parody and reference jokes, this tragic realization seemed pretty funny to me.

Years later, I wrote a showbiz parody called Waiting For Waiting For Godot. I had to go through a lot more disappointment and heartbreak for this play to make sense in my head. The need to do a showbiz parody was what attracted me to comedy in the first place, a chance to just laugh at it all. All the trivial worries and real fears, all the times I was fired, all the copious amounts of bad advice given freely with good intentions, all the training and all the waiting. All of what I have witnessed and experienced (and continue to do so) as an artist doing what I love, cracking jokes and telling stories in the theatre.

I don't know if my play builds on Beckett's masterpiece. I hope it offers an inspiring, comedic look into the existence of artists. Especially those you never hear of, the ones who are waiting.

Having my play premiere at the St James Theatre in London is an amazing privilege I never dreamed possible. But this is what happens when a producer like Libby Brodie likes your script and invites you to coffee to discuss its possibilities and gives you an opportunity. To quote Mr. Stewart, " Thanks a million Ms. Brodie! My play is going to London!"

Waiting For Waiting For Godot is at St James Theatre 30 August-24 September

Photo credit: Andy Tyler

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