Jade Posted June 6, 2005 Report Posted June 6, 2005 (edited) Act 0 is intended to precede Acts one and two of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. As it is written, I believe it can stand alone. The day before. Same time. Same Place. Lucky’s hat front center. The tree is extensively colored in gray-yellow leaves. Enter Pozzo uncomfortably. He halts in front of the hat. Picks it up, puts it back down, picks it up again, hits it as if to knock settled dust off of it, and peers into the depths of the hat. Puts the hat down where he found it. Comes and goes. Halts in the center and looks just above the audiences’ heads. Comes and goes. Halts extreme right and coughs emphatically before beginning to talk about the night. POZZO: The night. (He looks pointedly at the ceiling and then back at the audience.) It is pale and luminous like any sky at this hour of the day. (He thinks.) But it will probably get paler. That would be my estimation. Pppfff! We’re finished! He remains a moment silent and motionless, then begins to move feverishly about the stage. He halts before the tree, and yanks buoyantly on a lower branch. He stops. He looks at the tree. He gazes off, into the audience. Enter Lucky left, hatless, head bowed. He slowly crosses the stage. Pozzo turns and sees him. POZZO: You again! (Lucky stands just short of his hat looking pained.) Come here till I embrace you. LUCKY: No! Pozzo looks mildly annoyed. POZZO: Lucky! Did they beat you? (Pulls at the rope he is using as a belt.) Lucky! Where did you spend the night? LUCKY: Get away from me! Don’t touch me! Don’t hug me! Don’t come near me! Never leave me again! (Sits down, puts on hat, begins to weep.) Pozzo moves far right and picks up a series of bags and moves towards Lucky. As Pozzo carries the bags, a fine trickle of sand leeks from the corner of one of the bags. Lucky crawls to the trail of sand, licks his finger, touches the sand, and puts the same finger in his mouth. Pozzo sets the bags down front center. Lucky abruptly stops weeping and stands up. He walks to the bags, picks up one bag in his left hand. POZZO: Do you remember how to think, Lucky? (He looks mildly dejected after carrying the bags.) Do you remember how to dance? Do you remember when we used to dance together? That was a long time ago. (Pozzo trails off and falls silent. Lucky begins to cry again.) Does it hurt? Is that why you don’t dance? (Lucky looks scornfully at the other bags as Pozzo removes the rope from his waist.) Here, try this. I need some air. (Pozzo hands the rope to Lucky, Lucky loops it loosely around his neck. He contemplates, and then wraps it more tightly.) LUCKY: It wouldn’t take much. It might not even hurt. POZZO: It would probably hurt less. LUCKY: Do you think? POZZO: Why wouldn’t it? (Pozzo adjusts himself and scratches. He takes his hand out of his pants and looks at the back of it.) LUCKY: Can we practice tomorrow? POZZO: Hanging ourselves? (Lucky nods.) Of course, if I see you then. LUCKY: Wouldn’t you? POZZO: Why would I? LUCKY: Well, aren’t we waiting to find someone? POZZO: Two people. I believe. If I remember correctly. But I might not. When things go (glances down and pauses before re-starting.) When things go…other things go. Like when the sky grows paler. Because that’s just how it is on this bitch of an earth. LUCKY: Do you remember who we’re waiting to find? POZZO: Vladimir and Estragon. LUCKY: Do we know them? (Lucky picks up another bag in his left hand. With his right hand he allows part of the rope to trail down his back, while tightening the noose around his throat.) POZZO: Not yet, that’s why we must find them. LUCKY: And then what? POZZO: We will have found them? LUCKY: But what then? POZZO: Then we’re free. LUCKY: But aren’t we now? Lucky and Pozzo stop all motion and look at the audience to consider their freedom. Pozzo begins to pace and Lucky shifts his weight before picking up a bag in his right hand. Pozzo clears his throat. Pozzo clears his throat again. POZZO: FIRE!! FIRE!! FIRE!! (Lucky looks confounded. He turns to face Pozzo.) LUCKY: What are you doing? Where’s the fire? POZZO: I’m proving that we’re not free. (Lucky nods and looks back at the audience.) Let’s go. LUCKY: Go where? POZZO: It doesn’t matter. (Lucky has picked up all of the bags. He appears to be under considerable strain.) Pozzo begins to pace from extreme left to extreme right. Lucky follows a step or two behind. Lucky’s steps get slower until Pozzo is at extreme left while Lucky is at extreme right. Pozzo stops. Lucky stops. POZZO: Well are you coming? Lucky moves across the stage to Pozzo. Pozzo takes the rope from around Lucky’s neck, tightens it, and takes a step off stage. A leaf falls from above the tree. Lucky watches it land before bowing his head. POZZO: Lucky! Are you coming now? LUCKY: Will we be free? POZZO: Well? Shall we go? LUCKY: Yes, let’s go. They do not move. Curtain Edited June 6, 2005 by Jade
Peredhil Posted June 6, 2005 Report Posted June 6, 2005 That captures much of the ennui and futility of the original. Reminds me of reading Camus. Good stuff.
Wyvern Posted June 6, 2005 Report Posted June 6, 2005 I agree with Peredhil that this is a clever piece of fan fiction, Jade. As a fan of both Beckett and "Waiting for Godot," I enjoyed reading over your prologue to the other acts of the play. I really liked how you brought up the notion that Pozzo and Lucky are actually searching for Vladimir and Estragon, as it seems appropriate and only adds to the futility of the piece. I also thought the inability to act and dialogue exchanges were characteristic of Beckett, though I was surprised how much Lucky spoke in this given his lack of actual lines in the play. Also, the hat paranoia was mainly a characteristic of Vladimir in the play, if I'm not mistaken. Nicely done, once again. I read "Waiting for Godot" fairly recently, and this was a nice compliment to the reading.
Jade Posted June 7, 2005 Author Report Posted June 7, 2005 The relationship between Estragon and Vladimir parallels that of Lucky and Pozzo. Lucky and Estragon are submissive, but the relationships they have with their companions are symbiotic. This dependence creates false meaning. Pozzo becomes Lucky’s life meaning and Pozzo’s life meaning is finding meaning for Lucky. This relationship frees Lucky from responsibility and gives Pozzo something to do. In Waiting for Godot, Pozzo and Lucky’s relationship is a mature version of that of Estragon and Vladimir. Therefore, “Act 0.” represents Pozzo and Lucky before they evolved into the mature version that is conveyed in Waiting for Godot. So I modelled the relationship Lucky and Pozzo have after the relationship between Estragon and Vladimir in Act II.
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