Javen Tanner (Courtesy Sting and Honey)
Finding the right play with which to debut a new theater company is serious business. It needs to be the right work to give prospective audiences an idea of what to expect from the new venture. For Javen Tanner it was a no brainer. For years he’s been drawn to modern theater and the works of Samuel Beckett. So what better choice for his new Sting and Honey Company than Beckett’s Waiting for Godot? “Beckett is one of my three loves,” Tanner told Reichel Recommends. “The other two are Shakespeare and Chekov.”
Shakespeare was on the front burner for a long time, but the large cast required for the Bard’s plays was a drawback. “The big cast is a downside for us now,” Tanner said. “We needed a smaller play with name recognition that would ignite my and our actors’ passion to do it.” And Waiting for Godot certainly met Tanner’s criteria. “It has a small cast and everyone has heard of it.”
Waiting for Godot opens Sept. 15 and runs through Sept. 24 in the Leona Wagner Black Box Theater in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center.
The modern rituals of Beckett’s now classic play have always appealed to Tanner. “Beckett is anti-Brecht. He doesn’t tell you what’s right or wrong the way Brecht does. Beckett is about ritual, not about telling people what to think. And as a piece of theater it is one of the greatest plays ever written.” Tanner isn’t worried that staging Waiting for Godot as its inaugural production will hurt the fledgling company. “Audiences are ready for something like this,” he said. “There is an underestimating of the Utah community, too many (theater companies) tell audiences what to do. This is a much more sophisticated and diverse community.”
That perception is at the core of Sting and Honey. “The theater landscape here is filled with companies, but there are only two different camps. On the one hand you have Hale which produces crowd pleasers. And on the other you have companies like Salt Lake Acting Company and Pioneer that challenge their audiences. But for me, neither should be the focus. The theatrical experience should be focused on creating ritual. That’s what it really comes down to.” To that end, it is important to engage the audience in conversation. “You need to understand your audience.”
And it is also important to understand the play and the playwright, Tanner added. “For too many years, people have approached Beckett as an academic exercise, and people are turned off by that disservice to his works.”
It’s necessary to know out of what tradition Beckett’s works come to fully understand them. “It’s vaudeville and commedia dell’arte and you need to know that to make it work.” Tanner added that his staging will no doubt surprise many. “It’s really a fast moving play – that’s what Beckett recommended – and that’s how we’re doing it.”
Tanner will be doing double duty. He’ll be playing Estragon and also directing the play. The others in the cast are fellow company co-founder David D’Agostini (Vladimir); Roger Dunbar (Pozzo); Cameron Deaver (Lucky); and Cavin Huntsman (Boy).
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION:
Location: Leona Wagner Black Box Theater, Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
Time and Date: 8 p.m. Sept. 15-16; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sept. 17; 8 p.m. Sept. 20-23; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sept. 24
Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes with intermission
Tickets: $22 general, $15 seniors and students
Phone: 801-355-2787 or 888-451-2787