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In the second week we all sat around and each talked about the play, the characters, the settings and how we could turn it into a full play. The themes of the play were as it is shown in the photo. Absurdism, existentialism and German expressionism. Also themes of time and humanity. The original themes we wanted to keep as it was paying respects to the original story and the wait for Godot or now Godeo was important to tell. The origins of the name sake as well came up in this meeting, the Irish roots of Beckett and his time as well with the French resistance. With this we've kept them in and included scenes to focus on Becketts history.

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In the first few weeks of creating the story and having discussions based on what we want to tell or how we all wanted the stage and aesthetic of the piece to be like, we all came in with pictures and parts of the script we'd like to create.

The pictures conclude of costumes and set design.

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This was an early idea for a scene, a future pozzo meeting past pozzo. Before we got a writing team together to write the play I thought of an idea, I wasnt good at writing it down but it was an idea of mine to have the pozzo's see each others behaviour towards Lucky, who was being used by the future Pozzo as a slave. It was supposed to be a realisation that Pozzo would turn on his friend and harm Lucky.

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Another idea. I liked the thought of using clowning with Potso and Hope (Previously Pozzo and Lucky) as in earlier productions of Godot clowning was heavily used to show case some of the characters physicality's and attitudes. Here are some exercises I've done in my spare time to help with my energy for the Circus scene.

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I've owned this book for many years. In my previous acting training I've done physical theatre and clowning many times. And this book was my treasure during the first many weeks of this production. Lecoq's work with masks and physicality was what I wanted to work on the most for my character and having the book as a tool to help me was great.

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For the character of Potso and the first initial thought of clowning. I started looking for any characters I could draw inspiration from. I found an old favourite wrestler of mine, called Stardust, I saw interviews of him talking and the way he spoke was how I would imagine Potso talking about the 'wonders of the night' during the circus scene in act 1 and 2. The heightened energy and the lack of reality was interesting to me as an actor and so I wanted to bring this energy to the space.

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stardust  intercontinental championship entrance

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The way Potso talks is much like this. I was inspired by Stardust and the way 'Cody Rhodes' captures the attention of people when he's talking. Without the gimic of stardust and the outfit you'd only think he was crazy for talking like this. Which is why I liked it for Potso, a clown who's extravagant and energetic but fails to entertain. The change of soft to rough through the storytelling and the hand gestures and eye contact was something I've taken on board and have been trying to replicate in my own Potso way.

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The relationship between Potso and Hope is one of slave and master. While searching for something to do with mime or clowning I found this short film. The mime meets someone at a train station and begins to mimic them and show them tricks, however the person walks away and leaves the mime upset. The play Godeo mentions, Hope refusing something once, and hasn't done it since. Potso beats Hope and puts a rope around their wrist to trap them and keep them enslaved so Potso can make money.

The subtle looks and facial expressions in this piece plus makeup is how I'd see the relationship between them when they'd first been entering the circus scene, since Hope is a mute until told to think. This was a nice short film which helps me think of the mindset how the character treats Hope vs how they treat the other people on stage.

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I saw a play many years ago called 'Faustus that damned woman' and the costumes were really good. This is an idea for Potso and Hope, a high status man and a low level man Hope. The costumes tell the audience a lot just as much as the acting, much like this play and Kin as well the costumes played a big part.

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The makeup for potso, to make them more sinister was this. The eyeliner replicates a mad mind, an unstable ringmaster who only cares for himself. The only thing I could think of to further portray this was to highlight the eyes, whatever I could do to show the narcissistic and hateful mind of Potso to an audience would be to make them look like it.

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Upon reading through waiting for Godot with the group I liked the name Pozzo so I read the character. Once reading all Pozzo's lines I knew I wanted to play them. With the sudden change of tone while talking to Lucky and the insults they use against them was something I did well during the table read. Something many of the group told me. The voice was the important part of the character. The authority of the voice and how strong it is towards the characters but also how deceiving it can be towards others, the softness and harshness to the voice was a noticeable thing I saw while I watched some early productions of the original show. For example in this, the soft speech is still strong at the start like he's about to perform the best show of his life, then he notices Lucky not paying attention and he in a split second goes from showman to slaveowner and snaps into a harsh yell. Triggering Lucky to look at him and pay attention. Then he shows his status to Didi and Gogo by also yelling at them. The little snaps between personalities or voice changes are something I've kept true in the piece as I wanted to honour the original Pozzo.

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"Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett - Act 1  Pozzo

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A song that I think would represent my version of my character Potso is this one. I listened to a lot of the soundtrack from the film Joker from 2019 and this song stuck out for me. It's the audacity of the character Potso and the quote 'some people get their kicks, stomping on a dream' feels ironic as Potso stomps on the dreams of Hope and only allows them to dance when Potso feels like it, for entertainment or to make money. But as the play is Entitled Sin E, that's that and even That's life to Potso. Making money and using his best Hope to do it, he say's he could have any assistant but he choses Hope as they make him the most money. The quote from the song above as well can quite literally be taken as Potso stomps on Hope. They beat them, and Hope uses violence against Dodo who we've all perceived as an earlier version of Potso.

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The hats to be used in the piece, prove to have significance. Hopes hat is to help them think. And the others hats are to be used to display status. I was practicing tricks with this hat but throwing it up in the air and trying to catch it on my head or moving it around my hands and finding new ways to put it on my head and take it off, practiced with our movement supervisor Stella Griffiths.

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I had a pinterest board for my character, I have chosen a few pieces that I felt appropriate for Potso. The joker was only one of them because the image of him laughing while he's upset was one I never thought true of Potso, but when he's breaking down in Act 1 Scene 3 about his Hope being gone and they can't take it. I see this kind of behaviour seeping out, the sadness but also the humour of it all, how they broke Hope but somehow is sad they're gone still. It's a contradiction of Potso's mind, it is a question I've asked myself, what is the relationship between them, do they like each other or hate each other. Why does Hope stay? Is it loyalty, is it out of fear, its an abusive relationship, Potso is cruel to Hope, they've broken them down and beaten them but they say they'd throw them out if they didn't care for them.

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Found through research on movement elements.

It's interesting to see the rope being used, and taking some inspiration from it when she wraps her body with the rope. As this happens in the circus scene. The movement is how I would have seen the relationship shown through movement between the two characters Potso and Hope.

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A picture of inspiration for clowning and outfits that could be worn.

On the props list we had various tricks, so a flag that can be pulled out from my sleeves and reversed so its the two moods of Potso. Or a scene where I'm juggling some bones on stage to taunt Hope. Then there's the rope trick I do in the circus scene, I wrap it around Hopes body and they spin out making it appear larger then the original rope. The rubbish tricks of Potso trying to put on a good show but with Hope not wanting to.

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For a moment in Act 2, The looping scene, where Dodo and Gigi turn into Potso and Hope. I thought back on a film which I took some movement inspiration from, it ties in with clowning also.

The bathroom scene and the soundtrack encourages some slow motion movements which could bring around a turn of character during the scene. The exact slowness adds a sinister vibe. If they're morphing into the circus animal and ringmaster what better way to do it then through a movement piece. A lot of the soundtrack was inspirational to me while figuring out some movement.

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I had ideas for the circus Potso and clowning outfits and I put them in this board here.

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More costume ideas. put together by the costume team on Godeo. They consist of ideas we all came up with as a group to fit the aesthetic from day 1. We all thought about clowning and German expressionism as the early performances of the play included it and we wanted to be as truthful and pay tribute to the writer of the play Samuel Beckett.

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The length of the rope and where to put it was thought out well, due to issues I've had with some of the themes in the piece which the group was nice enough to remove or change so it wasn't as upsetting for me, the rope was planned to be around the wrist instead. With the noticing of the rope around the wrist for some other characters we've planned some movement parts, safely planned out so whoever plays Hope isn't actually injured by the prop.

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Lydia and Aaliyah are in a scene where they use barrels and find ways in and out of them in the beginning of the scene. I directed this scene and helped stage it. I have a video of them rehearsing the scene for the first time.

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I helped direct this scene as we all took on creative roles in the production.

As this scene was an absurdism scene I helped find ways to make it that way. There's a carrot in the scene so I suggested a funny way to incorporate a religious theme as the idea of Godeo could be also used as a godly figure. So the carrot part was framed like it was the man in the sky (like in the painting) was passing it to people but they couldn't reach it. I thought adding little moments of comedy in the scene would make the characters personalities and relationship with each other stand out more.

We also worked on how they would move after coming out of the barrels, this was done by asking questions such as how long have they been in there or how comfortable it is.

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During the “get in” in the theatre I helped out map the lighting and the sound cues for the tech team, also mapped out where certain props and scenes would be happening. This particular scene is on the balcony and this was a test for the spotlight on the two actors.

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The stage setting concludes of a tree, a moon and the blocks which were keeping greyish as they represent the rocky terrain on set in each scene location. This set stays on stage for the majority of the show, the other bits of set include two plastic barrels which I’ve helped transition onto the stage during the scene start and end, and a lighted fire pit which I also helped with the transition of bringing it on to the stage.

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This is the fire pit set piece which tech helped create. The wires will be on stage as it doesn’t stay on the stage throughout the play so the two actors are going to have to safely carry the wires and the fire pit off after their scene.

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For the circus scene which is my biggest scene. We chose red and white spotlights to showcase a circus… it fades out and becomes less red and more orange.