Until I was twelve years old, I was educated in the French school system, where theatre meant Molière, Corneille, Racine. Going to the theatre usually meant shows such as The Sound of Music or My Fair Lady. Then, it was decided that I would switch to an English school. So, at thirteen, I arrived at Westminster School. It was 1968, and my horizons expanded.
I attended a student performance of Waiting for Godot in French in a small room with a modest platform, and I sat at the back. In terms of music, I was pretty sophisticated – I was familiar with all the psychedelic music that had been happening. I’d experienced the Mothers of Invention. I’d watched numerous performances. But I didn’t know there was material of this kind. I quickly realized that, similar to 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, with a sort of pent-up tension. And then, naturally, it erupts with Pozzo and Lucky’s arrival. The performance was put on by senior students, including Nigel Planer as Lucky. He was a commanding figure on stage. And he must perform that highly elaborate speech. In French. It was astonishing.
I was captivated by the notion that very little needed to occur, you know? That an event took place and then it just goes on and then you have the young messenger at the end stating that Godot won’t be coming today. It addressed time and action and narrative. Or the lack thereof.
We had been instructed all these guidelines about what drama was, but none of them applied here. I was deeply intrigued by how little was going on. Years afterward when I was producing music, I would attempt to transform them into something comparable. When a new instrument came in, I’d remove other instruments and deliberately isolate them. So you clearly perceived that piano or that string instrument or whichever element. That idea of minimalism … I grasped that with Godot.
And yet it possesses a narrative. It really does. I mean, they are well-developed personas. They are vibrant, Vladimir and Estragon, in their love for each other, like an long-term partners. I don’t know how my life would have evolved if I did not attend that performance. To that school and that show then. It just awakened something in me.
We were let out on weekend days, and I started going matinees at the theatre venue every time there was a fresh staging. So you would experience works by modern playwrights. But the entry point to all of this was Godot.
I have so little recollection of the performance itself, except I know that it was consistently engaging – it had me at the edge of my seat. What I learned is that there need not be any rules. It definitely influenced how I worked with the bands that I signed to Ze Records. I even had the musical group write a song around that famous phrase. I just instructed them: “I want a song with that name.”
I think it made me more fearless, too, because you don’t need to worry about setbacks if you subscribe to Beckett’s worldview.
