G ( ) D ( ) T

REVIEW by Willard Manus

Welsh writer Steve Gough riffs on Waiting for Godot in his quirky but amusing G ( ) D ( ) T, now in its world premiere at the Met Theatre. In Beckett's famous drama, Godot never makes an appearance. It remains for Gough to finally put him on stage, in the person of Mister Godot, a cranky old codger who runs a mysterious business out of a seedy office. His cowed, hapless clerk Snook sits banging away on an old Underwood while his employer barks at him mindlessly. In this way, the two of them become the doppelgangers of Beckett's raffish tramps, Vladimir and Estragon.

Mister Godot keeps babbling on and on about them, ex-friends whom he abandoned some years ago. Snook, trapped like a prisoner in this windowless hell, just keeps typing his head off. It's slave and master again; each needing the other to survive.

As in Godot, a young outsider finally arrives--a messenger with an obscure message. Beckett's parable of pointless human existence is repeated here, in deadpan, whimsical fashion.

Two excellent actors play Mr Godot and Snook--Nicolaus Mackie and Tyson Turrou, respectively. Max Ruether and Adam Connor Friedman alternate as the Messenger. The cast, directed by Ilmar Taska, does a nifty job with this tricky bit of absurdist theater.

(Met Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave, Hollywood. 800-838-3006; brownpapertickets.com/event275533)