A school production of Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece, with Nigel Planer in the cast, provided a lesson in forgetting about failure
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ntil I was 12 I was in the French school system, where theatre was Molière, Corneille, Racine. Going to the theatre meant The Sound of Music or My Fair Lady. Then it was decided I would switch to school in England. So, at 13, I arrived at Westminster school. It was 1968, and the world opened up.
I went to see a school production of Waiting for Godot in French in a small room with a little stage, and I was sitting at the back. Musically, I was pretty sophisticated – I already knew about all the psychedelic music that had been happening. I’d seen the Mothers of Invention. I’d seen lots and lots and lots. But I didn’t know there was stuff like this. I suddenly became aware that, just like in music, there was a whole new world out there.
I don’t know how good the French was, but it really didn’t matter what they were saying. It was just so abstract and vibrant and alive, with a sort of pent-up tension. And then, of course, it all explodes with Pozzo and Lucky’s arrival. The show was put on by older boys including Nigel Planer as Lucky. He was such a presence on stage. And he has to deliver that extraordinarily sort of baroque monologue. In French. It was amazing.
