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September's read will be Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. This is one of my favourite plays so I am excited to be reading this with everybody. Feel free to leave comments and start a discussion down below.

I'm excited too, & am cheating by starting to read it already. I'm hoping to leave some ideas here while I'm reading, & see what happens to those ideas by the time I get to the end of the book. I don't think it'll be spoilerly, but now I'm wondering ...

Lost count of how many times I've read this play now but there seems to be more to pick up on every time you go back to it.

Spoiler alert Godot never actually turns up, because this play is about everyone's favourite topic - nihilism! Estragon and Vladimir are prisoners of their own actions as they compulsively and repetitively wait for a man named Godot who never turns up. Their waiting is seemingly meaningless. They fail to exercise their own free will because they are unaware that they have any, and thus repeat phrases and actions day-after-day without knowing why they do so.

The themes of doubling are also very interesting as it highlights the duplicity of choice and acts as a juxtaposition against the stagnancy of the main pair. Plus it allows some religious interpretations in terms of Cain and Abel, Heaven and Hell, etc, which are tied in with the idea of objective truth that is challenged here.

Basically I love Gogo and Didi so much and this play is hands-down the best play I will ever read in my life so yes I hope you all enjoy it too.

Waiting for Godot is mostly two men talking while waiting on a road near a tree, but a play that the viewer is compelled to interpret. What does it mean? Who is Godot? Why do Vladimir and Estragon live as they do? What are Pozzo and Lucky's roles? Why does Pozzo go blind? Why is it so funny? Where does the symbolism begin, and end? Because everything is this play seems symbolic. Not a word is spoken or a boot removed that doesn't seem like a symbol of something. But what? Since this is known as an existentialist work, I suppose it's safe to say the play is about humanity's search for meaning, while at the same time we're scrutinizing the play for meaning. What could be more existentialist than that? But what if the viewers sit back, perhaps with cups of espresso, and just watch Waiting for Godot on its own terms, for our own enjoyment, just accept it for what it is, and don't try to probe it for meaning or allegory. That actually seems a little more existential to me. But I may be (to paraphrase Roxane Gay) a bad existentialist. Because I want to interpret this, it's fun: is Pozzo Capitalism incarnate and are the proletariat the ironically named Lucky? "Godot" sounds like "god-oh." Is he God? Is Godot an inversion of "doggo," meaning concealed or hidden? Is Godot actually Beckett (Godot has agents, "critic" is the worst insult of all, he does nothing (clearly an author), and has Gogo's and Didi's future in his hands)? A play of two men trying to find something to give them the impression they exist, trying to find ways to live a meaningless, pointless, purposeless, absurd existence. Trying to deal with nothing, waiting, repetition. They consider many methods, including suicide. They're Sisyphus split in two and dressed in music hall costumes. Nothing lasts, nothing is sustained, in the end nothing changes. Somehow they believe Godot will save them, but we know he'll never arrive. They want to do something while they have the chance (after all, it's not every day that they're needed). The whole play is an existential crisis on a minimalist set. While enjoyable on the page, viewing the Irish version on YT helped, too. In the end I think this is a play the viewer can profitably analyze endlessly, or just sit back and simply enjoy for its comic absurdity. A work of genius.

A splendid review.

Thank you! That means so much. Hoping to see your comments & what other folks have to say ...

Zoheb wrote: "Looking forward to reading this book too and then coming back to the discussion."

Different versions of the play are available on Youtube last time I checked.