Along with any number of frolicsome kids and watchful parents, Deering Oaks has hosted its fair share of lost souls over the years. But perhaps not many who have been more lost than Vladimir and Estragon, the two main characters of Samuel Beckett’s 1953 play “Waiting for Godot.”

Beckett’s squabbling-but-strangely-bound-together buddies have appeared on bare stages, in empty factory buildings and elsewhere over their long theatrical careers. Now, the Fenix Theatre Company, in its first venture away from Shakespeare, has stranded them near a bridge in the park.

There are worse places to be left waiting on a summer evening and that may be the first hurdle for audiences as they are drawn into the rather bleak and unforgiving human landscape Beckett sought to reveal. But, aside from the distractions of a few vociferous ducks and an impatient terrier, Friday’s opening performance worked out quite well in getting at Beckett’s vision.

First-time director Rob Cameron has pulled together a fine cast for this 90-minute, two-act show. In the lead roles, Matt Delameter and Bryant Mason handle convincingly the sometimes elliptical but oftentimes compelling dialogue between two men stuck in some sort of inescapable limbo situated along a country road.

Angry outbursts alternate with tones of abject resignation in these characters’ journey to nowhere, and the lead actors were strong in finding that bit of offbeat drama in just those measly morsels of subject matter afforded them by a world where there is “Nothing to be done.”  Their screams and cries set dogs barking and, more importantly, hearts pounding during some of the more intense moments.

David Butler and Johnny Speckman play Pozzo and Lucky, two bizarre passers-by whose strange relationship makes Vladimir and Estragon seem relatively normal. Each offered weird, obsessive monologues that achieved some of the biggest laughs of the performance.

In addition to ragged, grungy clothes, the characters wear bowler hats which they sometimes mysteriously stare into or comically exchange.

“What the heck is this all about?” has been a not uncommon audience response to this play over the years. And that’s essentially what it is all about: humans questioning the mystery of their own existence — sometimes out of boredom from not knowing and sometimes out of terror from not knowing.

With some provocative comedy and overall good characterizations, Fenix Theatre has produced an unusually entertaining theatrical experience in the park. 

Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.

 

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