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Catastrophe
Background >
Theme
With the sole character on stage neither speaking nor performing any action, and with such details as his ‘age and physique unimportant’, to make sense of who he is and what is going on here we must look elsewhere. Traditional concepts of stage action and characterisation appear meaningless.
From the beginning, it is D (the theatrical director) who insists that the ‘black block’ on stage be read as a ‘plinth’ or ‘pedestal’, upon which is the subject that he has been sculpting in previous rehearsals and upon whom he now intends to consider and apply his ‘final touches’. The focus is clearly on what meaning D wishes shall characterise the human condition, rather than of any inherent attribute within the being himself. It is the theatrical creator who defines and directs the construction of the human condition.
The human object is denied any independent will or stature. D sees significance solely in his own conception of the aesthetic appearance of his creation. He is concerned only with constructing and articulating his own ideas and ordering compliant assistance in their physical translation. The art of the theatrical medium and process is the dramatic focus.
The Assistant (A), having dutifully and clinically noted the words of the Director, obediently performs a series of actions – such as taking the Director’s hands out of his pockets – that lets us see progressively more of P, the Protagonist, stripping all protective dignity from the statuesque human. Removing his wide-brimmed, shadow-casting black hat and black dressing gown is all the more visually emphasised as the garments transfer to, and gradually obscure, the Assistant’s white overall.
Any suggestion of resistance, connoted by P’s clenched fists, is deemed completely unacceptable. Only an animalistic, ‘claw-like’ reductive image is allowable. When P’s hands are joined and raised breast-high, it may seem to us to symbolise an absurd attitude of adoration, especially when combined with a bowed head, but it is for the Director only to ascribe meaning in the theatrical process, and his concern remains solely his own aesthetic gratification.
As more of the human form is exposed, the skull of the human object ‘needs whitening’, then the hands, the neck, the legs, the shins, the knees, until ‘all flesh’ is as white as death itself, or as ashen as his flimsy, grey pyjamas. This exposure of Man’s suffering at having been created in this way shows him to be pitifully incapable of doing anything more than shiver.
After the creative word of D being sacred in the beginning, and now that ‘It’s coming’ into being, the only ‘Light!’ that the creator desires will ultimately result in mere (cigar) ashes. P’s ashen appearance – his grey pyjamas and ‘all flesh’ whitened – graphically depicts his deadened existence. Humanity, we perceive, gives ‘birth astride a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more’. (Godot)
Ultimately, all stage lighting is killed and the light darkened on P’s body until the human form is reduced to ‘just the head’. This minimalist condition for human identity finally delights the creator: ‘Good. There’s our catastrophe. In the bag.’ The act of creation has reduced and humiliated P, just as the final resolution or dénouement of the plot in an Ancient Greek tragedy – the ‘catastrophe’ – guaranteed the defeat and ignominious death of its protagonist.
But any congratulatory applause the Director imagines hearing ‘falters and dies’ as P ‘raises his head’ and his perceptive gaze gleams an instant upon us – the audience. ‘In an instant all will vanish and we’ll be alone once more, in the midst of nothingness’. (Godot) The significance of such an epilogue must give us pause.
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