MONMOUTH, Ill. — Monmouth College’s Crimson Masque theater troupe will continue is spring theater season with Samuel Beckett’s legendary tragicomedy, "Waiting for Godot." Performances are Feb. 28 through March 1 at 7:30 p.m., and March 2 at 2 p.m. in the college’s Wells Theater.

Tickets are $4 for MC students, faculty and staff; $5 for other students and senior citizens; and $6 for adults. They may be reserved by calling 309-457-2104 or by e-mailing theater@monm.edu.

According to Janeve West, assistant professor of communication and theater arts and director of the college’s production of "Godot," the plot of Samuel Beckett’s play is simple to relate. "Two tramps – Vladimir (played by sophomore Tiela Halpin of Lansing) and Estragon (played by junior Noelle Templeton of Galesburg) – are waiting by a sickly looking tree for the arrival of Godot. They quarrel, make up, contemplate suicide, try to sleep, eat a carrot and gnaw on some chicken bones.

"Two other characters appear – a master, Pozo (played by sophomore Jenny Erbes of Warsaw), and a slave, Lucky (played by freshman Brandon Landon of Oneida) – who contemplate the complexities of thinking, struggle over a hat and stumble over each other. A young boy (played by freshman Andrew Farraher of East Peoria) arrives to say that M. Godot will not come today, but that he will come tomorrow."

West says Beckett’s play is "hilarious, poignant, thoughtful and painful in the same instance." Godot does not come and the two tramps resume their vigil by the tree, which between the first and second day has sprouted a few leaves, the only symbol of a possible order in a thoroughly alienated world.

Godot’s absence, as well as many other aspects of the play, has led to many different interpretations. Voted "the most significant English language play of the 20th century," it is filled with religious, philosophical, classical and psychoanalytical references which resonate as much today as they did at the production’s 1953 premiere. Beckett’s pungent physical humor, combined with his melancholy perspectives, make this absurdist piece an "acrid cartoon of the story of mankind."

In spite of some expectations to the contrary, the strange little play in which "nothing happens" became an instant success, running for 400 performances at Théâtre de Babylone. It enjoyed the critical praise of dramatists as diverse as William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, Jean Anouilh and Thornton Wilder. Saroyan remarked, "It will make it easier for me and everyone else to write freely in the theatre."

Perhaps the most famous production of "Waiting for Godot," took place in 1957 when a company of actors from the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop presented the play at the San Quentin penitentiary for an audience of more than 1,400 convicts. Surprisingly, the production was a great success. Like Vladimir and Estragon, the prisoners understood that life means waiting, killing time and clinging to the hope that relief may be just around the corner.

The assistant director and stage manager for the Crimson Masque production is freshman Lauren Webb-Kelley of Pekin.

In addition to the performances in Wells Theater, West says the theater department will be trying something new at the college with a pre-show, carry-tray discussion of the play on Feb. 28 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Whiteman-McMillan Highlander Room of the Stockdale Center. Members of the community and students are invited to join a roundtable discussion on the basic elements of surrealism, absurdism and existentialism that will be reflected in the production, as well as information about playwright Samuel Beckett. Guests will include MC faculty members Brian Baugh and David Suda, as well as West and students from the college’s modern theater history class.