Why Was the Slave Named "Lucky?"

1/12/2019

Williams, Martin, Abraham, Irwin as "Lucky"

In the fall of 1988, our son and I went to Lincoln Center to see a revival of "Waiting for Godot."

Robin Williams and Steve Martin were quite fine in the two lead roles, and F. Murray Abraham was properly domineering as Pozzo, leading his abject slave, Lucky, played by the master kinetic actor, Bill Irwin.

I was thinking of that master-slave relationship Friday night when The New York Times broke the story that the FBI had begun an investigation in early 2017 of the apparent master-slave relationship between Putin and Trump.
www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/us/politics/fbi-trump-russia-inquiry.html

In the real-life version, Lucky snarls and yaps at just about everybody else, but when Pozzo fixes his Lubyanka-basement glare at him, Lucky rolls on the floor and whimpers.

How did poor Lucky come to be led around on a leash? Beckett does not say. I am hoping this will soon be explained to us by Robert S. Mueller, III.

Lucky, left. Pozzo, right.

Roger Farrell

1/12/2019 10:53:05 pm

I am thinking of the movie "North by Northwest" when Cary Grant, hiding upstairs, flips a matchbook with a message toward Eva Marie Saint, to warn her that she was in danger. "they're on to you'', the message said.
With each passing day, we're on to him, just a little bit more.

George Vecsey

1/14/2019 09:21:35 am

Dear Roger, nice one. Your first comment on this site? GV

Roger Farrell

1/14/2019 11:00:14 pm

Yes

Hansen Alexander

1/13/2019 10:55:39 am

George, I saw that production at Lincoln Center and concur that it was terrific. I am waiting for the production of Robert Mueller's masterpiece as I write, LOL

Steven Lewis link

1/13/2019 11:32:36 am

And I'm thinking of Harold Pinter's brilliant film adaptation of "The Servant."

bruce

1/13/2019 09:37:37 pm

george,

not sure why, but i thought of 'being there'......

actually, that was my second thought.

my first was that i wasn't surprised they'd consider it.

bruce

George Vecsey

1/14/2019 09:23:47 am

Thanks to all, interesting to see the associations people make.
Then there was "The Manchurian Candidate."
GV

Josh Rubin

1/14/2019 09:35:45 am

Lots of analogies come to mind. Here are a few of mine:

House & Senate Republicans - Ionesco's Rhinoceros

Mueller - Porfiry in Crime and Punishment

Trump - Wizard of Oz (just a meek snake oil salesman behind all that amplification, bluster and pyrotechnics)

Altenir Silva

1/15/2019 09:14:21 am

Nice shot about the two presidents, they are - like in Beckett's play - on the same way, but without a pathway to follow. I think, our president (Jair Bolsonaro from Brazil) could be there, too.

George Vecsey

1/15/2019 07:27:41 pm

Josh: good point about the Wizard:

“Oh - You're a very bad man!"
Oh, no my dear. I'm a very good man. I'm just a very bad Wizard.”
― L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Think Ronald McTrump would claim to be "a very good man?" GV

bruce

1/15/2019 08:39:24 pm

george,

i'm sure he would.

and, still, tens of millions of people would agree.

bruce

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QUOTES
“They may hate the cultural context they now find themselves teaching in, but they love their work. The Achilles’ heel of schoolteachers, one all too easily exploited by politicians, is that they love their students.”
(One of the best reads in the NYT these days is Margaret Renkl, in Nashville. In her latest post, Renkl describes the dedicated core of “born teachers” – the majority, she submits.)
***
(From Madeleine Albright in one of her final interviews in February):
“Putin is small and pale,” I wrote, “so cold as to be almost reptilian.” He claimed to understand why the Berlin Wall had to fall but had not expected the whole Soviet Union to collapse. “Putin is embarrassed by what happened to his country and determined to restore its greatness.” – Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, recalling her first meeting with the relatively unknown Vladimir Putin in 2000. – The New York Times, Feb. 23, 2022.

Why Was the Slave Named "Lucky?"

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