Interview with the Actors of Waiting for Godot

Left: Tom Steward (Vladimir); Right: Joe Powers (Estragon)

We'll just keep waiting and waiting and waiting...

Until March 25th, that is, when fruitlessmoon theatreworks' production of Waiting for Godot opens at White Box Live Arts at NTC Liberty Station in San Diego. Waiting for Godot, a play by Irish writer Samuel Beckett, is a timeless story about two men, Estragon and Vladimir, who spend all of their time waiting for someone who ultimately never shows up. Waiting for Godot will be featured in our March issue of FINE (released tomorrow!), but until then, we have a sneak peek of Waiting for Godot straight from the actors' mouths. We spoke with Tom Steward (Vladimir) and Fred Harlow (Pozzo) about their experience with Godot, and we have the interviews here for you down below. Then, check back on March 13th for our feature article!

Tom Steward is an actor and writer who originates from the United Kingdom. For the last 8 years, Steward has taught Film and Television Studies at Platt College in San Diego. Other local productions that Steward has performed in include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sleuth, and Lone Star. In fruitlessmoon theatreworks production of Waiting for Godot, Steward plays Vladimir, one of the two characters stuck endlessly waiting for the arrival of Godot. FINE magazine spoke with Steward about the upcoming production.

I have to ask: how did you find your way to the US?

Steward: In a word: marriage. I met my wife while I was on vacation in San Francisco. We dated long-distance for a couple of years until I came here for a visit and proposed. We got married, and I’ve been here ever since. She had moved back to her hometown San Diego while we were dating, so this has become my home. Aside from the romance, I think I was always destined to live in the US.

I’m from a small town in the North West of England called Saddleworth but I’ve also lived in the British Midlands and London. I’ve been in the US for about three years now. This move has changed my life in other ways. After arriving in the US, I decided to return to acting after a decade-long break, and over the last two years I’ve been lucky enough to star in several short films, plays, and even TV pilots produced here in San Diego.

Were you familiar with Beckett's Waiting for Godot prior to being cast in it?

I was. As I was starting college, the Beckett on Film series – film versions of all nineteen of Samuel Beckett’s plays produced by Dublin Gate Theatre director Michael Colgan for Irish TV station RTE – was being broadcast on British television. I was starting to study theatre, and their version of Waiting for Godot opened my eyes to a different kind of stage drama, one that could say profound things about our world without necessarily having to strive for realism in the way they were presented.

Tell me about Vladimir. What traits are characteristic of him?

Vladimir (or Didi) is about as hard to describe as the landscape around him! He’s homeless, as far as we know, and spends his time in futile conversation with his companion Estragon (or Gogo) in some kind of wasteland to keep an appointment with a man called Godot, who never seems to turn up. We don’t know much about his past, except that he has lived a long life full of highs and lows, which has ended badly and left him mentally and physically scarred. He and Estragon are co-dependent, yet they also seem to hate the sight of each other and they sometimes slip in and out of each other characters. He’s a walking contradiction. Depressed and near-suicidal for much of the time, he remains remarkably optimistic about the prospects of Godot keeping his appointment - despite all evidence to the contrary - and bringing him and Estragon salvation. A man of blind faith, he also questions his place in the world existentially and is always searching for knowledge. He seems far less equipped than Estragon psychologically to deal with the darkness of existence and uses habit and routine to deny and intentionally forget the absurdity and horror of his situation.

 How did you prepare for this role?

Beckett is incredibly specific about wording, timing, gesture and movement, so it was important to have learnt all [of] those mechanically before rehearsals started. It’s very different from how you prepare for most roles, where typically you learn your lines as you rehearse and movements are motivated by characterization. In Waiting for Godot, what you say, when you say it, how and when you move is very controlled and inflexible, and you need to adjust your method as an actor to do justice to that. Patrick Stewart, who played Vladimir on Broadway, remarked that it was better to embrace the contradictions of the character than try to explain them. I think I agree, and as an actor you have turn off that part of your brain that wants to psychologically motivate every word or action, and play what is written whether it makes sense or not.

Left: Fred Harlow (Pozzo); Right: Don Loper (Lucky)

Fred Harlow has performed in a myriad of local theaters, including The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, North Coast Rep, and Scripps Ranch. Harlow portrays Pozzo, a man who passes by Estragon and Vladimir on his way to a fair to sell his slave Lucky. We spoke with Harlow down below about his upcoming appearance in Waiting for Godot.

Were you familiar with Beckett's Waiting for Godot prior to being cast in it?

Harlow: Not really; I had read it in college, but it went in one ear and out the other - or I should say went in one eye and out the other. At the audition, every person there had a dog-eared copy and I knew I was in over my head. It seemed some people even had the lines memorized. While I lived in NYC I did a show called Godot Arrives and the director urged us to read the original, but I must confess I raced through it in about 20 minutes, once again in one eye and out the other.

Tell me about Pozzo. What traits are characteristic of him?

Pozzo is an accident you can't keep your eyes off of, no matter how hard you try! He is pompas, arrogant, a poser, sadist, asshole, loud, aggressive, demands attention, childish, manipulater, ringmaster, do I dare say Trump-like? He loves language and words. The only thing he loves more than his voice is himself.

How do you relate to Pozzo?

Words and language! I am a language snob, it kills me to hear newscasters say shtreet instead of street or shtrength instead of strength. Git for get... I could go on and on. After high school I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC and my favorite class was speech. I was born and raised in Oklahoma, and my accent was very heavy... Side note: when I would visit my hometown, my family got sick of me correcting their pronunciation.

Though Waiting for Godot is only a little over 60 years old, the play feels very universal and like a timeless classic. Why do you think that is?

For some reason the title of this play is in our DNA. It amazes me how many non-theatre people know the title, and it amazes [me] more how many actors have never seen a production of it.

Visit fruitlessmoon theatreworks Waiting for Godot to purchase tickets to the show!

Photography by Natalia Valerdi-Rogers