New York Fringe Festival Report: ‘Waiting for Waiting for Godot\'

Jill Steinberg Chris Sullivan (in beige) and Dave Hansen (in grey) in “Waiting for Waiting for Godot.”

Reviews of shows from the New York International Fringe Festival will appear on ArtsBeat through the festival's close on Aug. 25. For more information, go to fringenyc.org.

Two guys on a road waiting for a man they've never met who never comes? Samuel Beckett's “Waiting for Godot,” of course. Two understudies backstage waiting for their chance to go on - a seriously unlikely prospect - in a production of “Waiting for Godot”? That is Dave Hanson's delectable “Waiting for Waiting for Godot.”

It would be a crime against absurdist-theatrical nature to make the abstractions of Beckett's masterpiece concrete. But Mr. Hanson's play gets away with pretending to be a parody, so we forgive it - even for having the nerve to provide a resolution.

Chris Sullivan has the showier role as Ester (Estragon in the original), a big guy who pretends to know everything. He decides to teach Val (played with convincing delicacy here by Mr. Hanson) the Miserly acting technique, which consists of repeating the other actor's line ad infinitum, and the Mamet, the art of cursing onstage.

Half the joke is that Ester pronounces the name Mam-may, and pretty much everyone in the audience knows that David Mamet's surname rhymes with “damn it.” Yes, this is catnip for theater insiders, but you don't have to be one to appreciate certain comments on Juilliard and talent agents.

“Waiting for Waiting for Godot” is richly, vibrantly, aggressively acted, and directed in kind by Alex Harvey. Even Amy Weaver, who appears briefly as the assistant stage manager, is memorable, doing what amounts to a dramatic reading of lighting cues.

“Waiting for Waiting for Godot” continues through Sunday at the Kraine Theater, 85 East Fourth Street, East Village.