THE DRAMATURGY OF WAITING:GAO XINGJIAN, PATRICK WHITEAND SAMUEL BECKETT Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is one of the truly great plays of the… [604283]

LI XIA
BUS STOP. SIGNAL DRIVER –
THE DRAMATURGY OF WAITING:GAO XINGJIAN, PATRICK WHITEAND SAMUEL BECKETT
Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is one of the truly great plays of the 20thcentury.
While the enigmatic figure of Godot has attracted the bulk of critical interest, less has beensaid about the act of waiting which is also at the centre of Gao Xingjian’s Chezhan (The
Bus Stop ) and Patrick White’s Signal Driver . This paper examines the dramaturgy of
waiting in the three plays and identifies similarities and differences in dramatic technique,thematic concern and theatrical representation.
It is a remarkable coincidence that two major writers, one in China, and one in Austra-lia, happened to dramatically explore the theme of waiting in the narrow context of abus stop at almost the same time: Patrick White (1912–1990) in Signal Driver (1981)
1
and Gao Xingjian in Chezhan (The Bus Stop , 1983).2Both writers won the Nobel
Prize: White in 1973 and Gao in 2000.3There are numerous other similarities between
0324–4652/2002/$5.00 Akadémiai Kiadó
© Akadémiai Kiadó Kluwer Academic Publishers, DordrechtNeohelicon XXIX (2002) 2, 227–246
Li Xia, School of Language and Media, Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle,
Callaghan, NSW2308, Australia. E-mail: [anonimizat]
1The title of Patrick White’s play Signal Driver is taken from the notice on signs at Sydney bus
stops: “Bus Stop Signal Driver.” (Kruse 1987: 313) Signal Driver was first performed by the
Lighthouse Company at the Playhouse in Adelaide on March 5, 1982 during the Adelaide Festi –
val.
2Chezhan was first published in Shiyue (October ), No. 3, 1983 and reprinted in: Gao Xingjian xiju
ji(Plays of Gao Xingjian ), Beijing (Zhongguo xiju chubanshe), 1985. At present there are two
English translations of the play available: “The Bus Stop”, in Chinese Drama After the Cultural
Revolution, 1979–1989 :An Anthology, edited and translated, with an Introduction by Shiao-Ling
S. Yu (1996: 233–290); “Bus Stop” translated by Kimberley Besio, in Haiping Yan (ed.), The-
ater and Society: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama (1998: 3–59). All quotations
of this play are taken from Shiao-Ling S. Yu’s translation and referred to as TBS with page num –
bers in brackets.
3Both were awarded the Nobel Prize primarily for achievements in fiction. For details of Patrick
White’s award of the Nobel Prize, see Patrick White. A Life (Marr 1992: 530–538). (There were
already strong rumours in 1969 that the award would go to Patrick White; however, the recipientwas Samuel Beckett.)

Gao and White: both had a keen interest in French language, literature and culture4
and both became distinguished scholars, novelists, playwrights and critics of their so –
cieties. Their views on theatre deviated strongly from mainstream theory and practice
and their understanding of theatre was much wider and differentiated than that of fel –
low playwrights in their native countries; both considered music, song routines, dance
acts, vaudeville, acrobatics, ritual and special stage effects as integral parts of theatre.5
Above all, both were contemptuous of the prevailing theatrical canon of quasi-realis –
tic and naturalistic stage representation and narrow prescriptive moral and ideological
didacticism. Patrick White stated his rejection of naturalism in drama programmati –
cally in an interview in connection with Neil Arnfield’s production of Signal Driver in
Sydney in 1985: “I find naturalism very boring, and Australia is bogged down in natu –
ralism in all directions. I like to float about in different spheres. Oh, you can say far
more in a play that is not naturalistic.” (Kruse 1987: 312) However, this view appliesnot only to Signal Driver , but also to his dramatic work in general as underpinned in
Pamela Payne’s introductory notes to volume two of Patrick White’s Collected Plays :
“Stylistically, White’s plays defy definition. He is gloriously eclectic – surrealism,vaudeville, expressionism, comedy that is bright, mannered and malicious, symbol-ism and gleeful dashings of melodrama. There’s only one style that is insistently ab-sent from his work: naturalism.” (Payne 1994: XI) Gao expressed similar views in hiscomprehensive interview on the art of theatre in “Evening Talks in Beijing,” serialisedin the literary magazine Zhongshan in 1987 (Zhao 2000: 221f.) and in numerous other
publications on drama.
6
Although the plays of Gao and White have been more successful overseas than in
their home countries (albeit for different reasons),7the innovative creative impulses
reflected in their dramatic œuvre constitute landmarks in the development of drama inChina and Australia respectively. Gao’s contribution to the creation of a new indige -228 LI XIA
4Patrick White received his schooling in Australia and Britain and read French and German at
King’s College, Cambridge.
5Gao’s unorthodox understanding of theatre is not as conspicuous in The Bus Stop as in some of
his later plays, as for example Wild Man (1984) with the subtitle An Epic Play and characterised
by Henry Zhao as “total theatre”: “It is possible to say that this could be a piece of theatre total asdreamed of by Artaud, as it contains ballad singing, mask-dance, Luo opera, wedding and funeralritual, as well as modern dancing that simulates earth, forests, floods, crowds of people, and‘emotions’.” (Zhao 2000: 82f.)
6“Gao Xingjian is himself a drama theorist. With several books of dramaturgical essays, he hasconstructed his own theorisation.” Zhao, op. cit ., 16. For bibliographical details of Gao Xing –
jian’s works and Gao Xingjian criticism, see the appendices in Henry Zhao’s study (2000:
215–225).
7Chezhan was only performed six times to “limited audiences” (i.e., a few hundred) in the re –
hearsal hall of the Beijing People’s Art Theatre. However, the script was published in the literary
magazine Shiyue (October ) which had a fairly large circulation. There was also considerable in –
terest in the public debate associated with Gao’s play for political reasons: “Many people in the
country who neither saw the performance nor read the script followed the debate with intense in –
terest, taking it as a barometer of the political climate.” (Zhao 2000: 89)

nous drama has been confirmed recently by the novelist Mo Yan in reply to a question
during the 2001 Sydney Writers’ Festival. White’s powerful innovative impact onAustralian theatre is undisputed and acknowledged by most critics. R. F. Brissendenhas summed it up most succinctly: “Whatever their deficiencies, and whatever specialproblems they may pose, these plays already constitute a body of work more substan –
tial, more original and inventive, and more promising than that achieved by any other
Australian dramatist.”
8(Brissenden 1964: 291) White’s intimate knowledge and
awareness of European culture and literary traditions clearly separates him from therest of contemporary Australian playwrights and the limitations of mainstream Aus –
tralian theatre which lacks the formal complexity and psychological and linguistic
richness of his dramatic (and narrative) œuvre. The same can be said about Gao’s the –
atrical imagination, although he openly admits his indebtedness to Chinese theatrical
traditions.
Among the numerous features which the two plays have in common, the suburban
bus shelter
9setting and the multi-faceted theme of waiting as a situational leitmotif10
are the most obvious and thematically significant ones, since they also echo SamuelTHE DRAMATURGY OF WAITING 229
8During the Second World War, White served in the Royal Airforce in the Middle East and
Greece. After the war he settled down in Castle Hill outside Sydney. His first group of plays in-clude: The Ham Funeral (1961), The Season at Sarsaparilla (1962), A Cheery Soul (1963) and
Night on a Bald Mountain (1964). Though written in 1947, The Ham Funeral was not performed
until thirteen years later in Adelaide. Because of the success of the play, White focused for ashort period on drama and wrote the three plays listed above. As a consequence of the controver-sial reception of his plays, White abandoned theatre and focused on writing fiction. FollowingJim Sharman’s successful production of The Season at Sarsaparilla in 1976 at the Sydney Opera
House, White returned to the stage with Big Toys (1977), Signal Driver (1982), Netherwood
(1983 ), Shepherd on the Rocks (1987) and the screenplay The Night of the Prowler (1977). Un –
doubtedly, his plays are difficult and highly critical of middle class (suburban) Australian society
and its darker aspects (“underbelly”) and are rarely performed by mainstream Australian theatre.
9In Gao’s play, the bus shelter is a natural meeting place for a cross-section of society. It also sig –
nals the importance of buses as a means of transport for the general public, that is, people who
can’t afford to travel in limousines. (TBS, 38) In the complaints of the Old Man, the author givesa realistic account of travel conditions in buses that most Chinese people can identify with. Theyalso contain critical observation of the running of the transport system with potentially politicalimplications. (TBS, 234–235) This aspect is of no relevance in White’s play, although the subur –
ban location of the bus stop is also highlighted in his play. Equally significant in both plays is the
“cross-road” symbolism associated with the bus stop, a symbolism that Gao is even explicitabout in his opening stage direction of TBS: “The railings are shaped like a cross, with each ofthe four posts a different length. This shape is symbolic of a crossroads, or a fork in the road onthe journey of life, or a way station in the lives of the characters.” (TBS, 233)
10Gao uses the term himself in point four of his theoretical postscript to Chezhan . However, he
identifies the Silent Man (that is, the “music of the Silent Man”) as the play’s leitmotif. (TBS,286) He uses this device with great skill throughout the play and succeeds in dramatically pro –
viding, though without words, an important key to the otherwise deliberately ambiguous and
cryptic message of the play.

Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting for Godot as a reference point as highlighted in the
parodistic, non-deferential opening lines of White’s Signal Driver :11
FIRST BEING: [ stirring, yawning ] Nobody yet. Makes yer fuckun
tired waitin’ for somethun to happen.
SECOND BEING: [ writhing around ] They’ll come though. They’re
expected.
FIRST BEING: Yair …
[TheFIRST BEING takes a swig from a bottle lying beside him. He
burps. ] (SD, 57)
However, this paper is not intended to focus on the identification and cataloguing
of formal or thematic similarities and differences in the dramatic exploration of the in –
trinsically undramatic situation of waiting in the plays of Gao, White and Beckett;
rather, it focuses on their interpretation as potential cultural markers and exemplaryreflections of the three playwrights’ artistic sensitivity and awareness of the humandesire (dreams) for freedom and the inherent impediments in their attempted realisa-tion. While the three plays conjure up bleak and ambiguous dramatic visions of themalaise of the human condition in the manner of the theatre of the absurd, they never-theless represent three unique dramatic variations on the culturally and historicallydetermined theme of the human condition, progressing from an implied socio-politi-cal context in Gao to the dramatic articulation of national-societal concerns in White’splay to Beckett’s masterly black-comedy reflections on existential anguish in a seem-ingly meaningless universe beyond the relevance of political systems and ideologies:“Hence an artist like Beckett does not concern himself with abstract and general veri-ties, even if there were room for them in his view of the world. Hence also no universallessons, no meanings, no philosophical truths could possibly be derived from the workof a writer like Beckett.” (Esslin 1965: 4) Significantly, Gao and White also resist thetemptation of trying to manipulate the audience with authoritative wisdom and mean –
ings, although their plays intermittently reflect their authors’ inclination for didactic
adhortation.
12Generally speaking, each play is focused on the importance of the
never-ending search for insights and revelation, underpinned in their circular struc –
ture, and on solutions for individuals as programmatically stated by the two invisible
avatars in Beckett-outfit at the bus stop of White’s Signal Driver :230 LI XIA
11Patrick White, “Signal Driver”, in Patrick White: Collected Plays Volume II , Sydney (Currency
Press), 1994, 53–96. All quotations of this play are taken from this edition and referred to as SDwith page numbers in brackets.
12See also White’s ironic comments on this issue in the Young Man’s prologue of his first play The
Ham Funeral : “That is the poet’s tragedy. To know too much, and never enough. (Defensive)
You are right in suspecting I can’t give you a message. The message always gets torn up. It lies atthe bottom of the basket, under the hair, and everything else. Don’t suggest we piece it together.I’ve found the answer is always different. So … the most I can do is give you the play, and plays,of course, are only plays. Even the great play of life. Some of you will argue that that is realenough … ( very quiet and diffident ) … but can we be … sure?” (HF, 16)

It’s coming, it’s coming,
the bus to set you freethe bus which connects.It connectswith whateveryou everhad in mind. (SD, 79)
While White’s play is permeated with overt and encoded allusions to Beckett’s mas –
terpiece, Gao’s dramatic affinity to Beckett is less explicit and more subtle and devoid
of White’s parodistic stance and penchant for the grotesque, which becomes obviousin the theatrical exposition of the two plays.
White identifies Signal Driver as a Morality Play for the Times , which suggests
that the play does in some way turn on moral decisions by the main characters (or theaudience). But the moral aspect implied in the genre-tag does not depend on specificdoctrines overtly advanced in the play, but rather on the author’s artistic concern andcapacity for humanity which is equally relevant in Gao’s case.
White’s play is set at a bus shelter (with Godot tree) on a main road leading into
Sydney where Theo and Ivy (Vokes) are waiting for a bus (tram) to town in order toescape from each other and the restrictive monotony and bigotry of suburban life:
THEO: [ erect, looking out into the night as though smelling the past ]
… The milk boiling over … the tea burning on the stove…We ran down to signal the driver. We never got round tostopping the tram–bus. We never succeeded in escaping…(SD, 87)
They try to do so at three significant stages of their life: 1920, 1950 and “the present
time,” but without success as the buses drive past and leave them, for mysterious rea –
sons, stranded at the bus shelter. The failure of the buses to stop constitutes the central
structural element in both plays and is a recurring climax of expectation and disap –
pointment in the otherwise dramatically static situation at the bus stop. At the same
time, it is also the trigger for criticism and speculations about the nature and causes oftheir predicament. The characters’ anger and frustration is, in the first instance, di –
rected at the bus drivers’ neglect of duty and subsequently extended to the public
transport authorities and their indifference towards the public. But White introducesearly in his play a dimension of uncertainty and ambiguity with regard to the would-betravellers and their indecision and emotional confusion (which is also alluded to inGao’s play, albeit less overtly):
THEO: Missed … but there’ll be another … if you wait …
FIRST BEING: Another …SECOND BEING: Another …FIRST AND SECOND BEING [ together ]: Always another …
[THEO is still gazing in the direction the tram has taken .]
THEO: Sometimes I think those blokes enjoy not seeing your signal.
[He takes off his hat and throws it on the shelter bench .]THE DRAMATURGY OF WAITING 231

FIRST BEING: Sometimes you signal only enough for it not to be
noticed …
SECOND BEING: … or kid yerself you signalled when you
didn’t …
FIRST BEING: Blow yer top at Public Transport …SECOND BEING: Gotter blame somebody, haven’t yer?
[THEO takes off the cloak and throws it on the bench beside the hat. He
is dressed in a cheap, badly-fitting suit. He suddenly raises his wristwatch. He looks at the watch with half-revealed distaste .] (SD, 58)
The ritual of waiting at the bus stop is observed and commented on by two invisible
supernatural Beings (avatars) whose appearance, behaviour and language, though ag –
gressively “Austraylian,” is strikingly similar to that of Didi and Gogo in Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot . Their critical and often savagely cynical and Mephistophelian
commentary which accompanies the predicament of Ivy and Theo as exemplary em –
bodiments of the “little peep-ul” (SD, 76) of Australian suburbia13constitutes an inte-
gral part of the play’s contrapuntal structure and its underlying idiosyncratic dramaticstyle: “They provide the play with a music hall dimension, and within the context ofsatiric banter and literary song and dance routines, caricature and absurd cliché areused to create a formal dramatic style in Signal Driver .” (Kruse 1987: 313) At the
same time, they also function as a mouthpiece of the author as they articulate some ofthe views, sentiments and concerns expressed elsewhere, as for example, Australia’suranium industry, nuclear warfare, the destruction of the environment, economic ra-tionalism, racial and sexual prejudice and the political future of the country (e.g. thecutting of ties with Great Britain in order to become a republic, SD, 86). These issuesare generally only raised in response to the views expressed by the couple at the busstop). Ivy and Theo arrive there for the first time as representatives of the Australianworking class around 1920 and progress successfully up the social ladder (SD, 86)during the 1950s at considerable personal cost and growing anguish and dissatisfac –
tion until they are confronted with old age, infirmity and impending death in the
1980s. While Ivy remains the perfect embodiment of suburban Australian middleclass values right to the end, Theo is trapped in her world and unable to free himselfand to escape: “We ran down to signal the driver. We never got round to stopping thetram – bus. We never succeeded in escaping …” (SD, 87) When finally his sight andmemory fail him (very similar to the depiction of old age in Beckett and Gao), eventhe purpose of his waiting becomes vague and blurred:
THEO: Got to remember what I came here for. My eyes are bad.
Can’t see – not close; only the distance. That’s nothing to do232 LI XIA
13By choreographing the Vokes’ entry on the stage through the audience, White identifies them
with the spectators, which might partly explain the lack of popularity of his plays among main –
stream Australian audiences. Equally important is probably the complexity of White’s plays
which set them apart from the lack of sophistication of mainstream domestic drama and musicalcomedy and television.

with memory. Or is it? Could be. We end up a network of veins
– of painful traffic – screeching memories.
[THEO raises his head like an old horse .]
I seem to remember I decided to come down to the shelter. Ican’t remember why. It’s always been there. No shelter, really.Butthere . I was running away because … Am I still running?
(SD, 87)
What Theo is hiding from his possessive and jealous wife, from her Jewish lover and
from middle class Australian bigotry and insensitivity is his vulnerable artistic Self:
THEO: […] What you don’t know about, Ivy, is the vulnerable core
of any artist. [ Quickly ] Oh, that’s something I don’t lay claim to;
only ever was a simple craftsman. But that’s what he –I too – must protect from the curious, the destructive, the resentful.(SD, 78)
Throughout his life, Theo has to suppress and hide his artistic aspirations (alluded to
in the motif of the table and tool chest metaphor)14in order to protect them from his
wife and a hostile Australian environment.
While the world around them changes drastically (for the worse), Theo and Ivy live
out their failure of leaving each other15at the expense of their true Self and Theo’s in-
ability to rid himself of his (Australian middle) class persona and societal constraints
and conditioning, a problem which is also reflected in White’s own love-hate relation-ship with Australia.
16The encounters at the bus stop thus become moments of revela-
tion and truth (epiphany), monitored and sarcastically commented on by the two invis-ible Beings.
17Through disjointed memories and images, vague hints and echoes andTHE DRAMATURGY OF WAITING 233
14The figure of the Carpenter in Gao’s play has similar aspirations: “My furniture is for people to
look at, not to sit at.” (TBS, 257; 266) Both stress the artistic side of their work. Gao does so witha touch of benevolent irony. (TBS, 258) In both plays, the tool chest is used as a leitmotif for the
characters’ artistic inclination and aspirations.
15Theo and Ivy are inseparably “glued together” just like Vladimir and Estragon, Lucky andPozzo, Hamm and Clov ( Endgame ), Krapp of the present and Krapp of the past ( Krapp’s Last
Tape ). The tensions between Theo and Ivy in White’s play also underpin the conflict between the
male and female aspects of Theo’s self and the underlying homosexual narrative of Signal
Driver . Beckett’s play signals a similar homosexual motif (though implicit), which is rarely ex –
amined in scholarly studies. Significantly, it is of no relevance in Gao’s play. (For interesting
socio-historical reflections on this matter see Chapter 51 of Gao Xingjian’s Soul Mountain. )
16For details of White’s painful awareness of his love-hate relationship with Australia, see his
self-portrait in Flaws in the Glass published in 1981 and his public statements in the latter part of
his life.
17This seems to be a parodistic reference to Vladimir and Estragon who also pretend to be sur –
rounded by an invisible army, or by an invisible Pozzo and Lucky. It also constitutes an impor –
tant facet of the theme of impaired vision and blindness with all its existential implications. The
departure of the Silent Man without being noticed by the waiting group at the bus stop (except forthe Girl) echoes the same problem. (TBS, 248 and 255f) However, Gao seems to avoid overt

their arguments and reflections, hidden knowledge is revealed, and the blurred con –
tours of the life journey18of the two protagonists and the world they live in begin to
emerge while nothing happens at the bus stop, just as in Beckett’s absurdist world ofVladimir and Estragon, summed up by the latter in his often quoted complaint: “Noth –
ing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful!”
19The very fact that the city
closes in on them at the end of the play, gives White’s play a thematic dimension of itsown in which the landscape of the soul and the theatrical articulation of the collectivesubconscious is more important than superficial reality, as for example at the end ofAct One, when in a “concert of rickshaw bells” and an approaching “babel of Asianvoices” (and fading lights) the two invisible Beings articulate in grotesque and jum –
bled distortion common sentiments and the virulent collective fear of their time, that
is, the insecurity of being “overrun” and “swamped” by “Asians” or “the hordes of theNorth,” also commonly referred to as the “yellow peril”:
20
SECOND BEING: So far no Zen master …
FIRST BEING: … has investigated …SECOND BEING: … the possibilities of …FIRST BEING: … the Sydney Transport shelter.SECOND BEING: He might …FIRST BEING: … wemight …
SECOND BEING: … discover that …FIRST BEING: … the Astraylian ego …234 LI XIA
philosophical probing by giving the theme of blindness as explicitly expressed by the Carpenter
(TBS, 255) a comic twist (see Director Ma’s concern about being spied upon by the Silent Man:”DIRECTOR MA: ( A little nervous .) I hope he’s not some official from the city who was here to
investigate something. Was he listening to us when I was discussing ideologies with the old gen –
tleman?” (TBS, 256) The same approach applies to the theme of “time” which constitutes an im –
portant element in the thematic structure of Gao’s play. But the numerous situations, in which the
increasingly frustrated and confused people at the bus stop check the time of their watches, echomore the hat clownery in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (or Charlie Chaplin routines) than genuine
philosophical speculation.
18This metaphor is also used by Gao right at the beginning of his play (and on several other occa –
sions): “This shape is symbolic of a crossroad, or a fork in the road on the journey of life, or a way
station in the lives of the characters.” (TBS, 233)
19Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot , London, Boston (Faber and Faber), 1965, 41. All further ref –
erences to this text will be cited parenthetically and referred to as WFG.
20The fear of being overrun by Asians is still widespread today in Australia and the arguments in
favour of a White Australia (White Australia Policy) advanced by Geoffrey Blainey and PaulineHanson are very similar to those at the end of last century. With the official rejection of the WhiteAustralia Policy in 1973, a more liberal and mature attitude towards Asians gained in strengthand has contributed to the formal promotion of multiculturalism in Australia, which had White’spublic support. For details on Australia’s national insecurity of being overrun by Asians, seeMcMaster (2001: V): “At least since the 1860s, Australians have feared that people from Asiawould come here in very large and uncontrollable numbers. Continually since then the fear hastaken nasty forms, from the violence on the gold fields to the popular support for One Nation.”

SECOND BEING: … will transfer …
FIRST BEING: … profitably …SECOND BEING: … from trumpet-blowing …FIRST BEING: … to one-hand clapping.SECOND BEING: [ sternly ] Not in extrovert society!
FIRST AND SECOND BEING: [ singing ]
But with all that footieand crickurtand jogging,they’ll settle for pullinga rickshaw like it’s another …Sport. (SD, 70–71)
With regard to time, place and plot as the basic unities of conventional theatre, the
dramatic exposition of Gao’s Bus Stop is similar to that of White’s play, although the
exemplary nature of the characters is more differentiated, but ultimately as representa –
tive of a cross-section of Chinese society as the “Vokes” (“folks”) in White’s Signal
Driver . However, it differs greatly from Beckett’s absolute rejection of dramatic uni-
ties and the play’s metadramatic comments on itself and its world.21The dramatic
premise subsequently unfolds as follows: on a Saturday afternoon eight characters(Silent Man, Old Man, Girl, Hothead, Glasses, Mother, Carpenter, Director Ma) ar-rive at a suburban bus stop to catch a bus to the city. In their eagerness to get to theirdestination as quickly as possible they try to form a perfect queue, but can’t agree onthe way to do it. They start to argue with each other and come close to a fight whenthey notice that the buses consistently fail to stop to pick them up. Eventually they dis-cover that they have already been waiting for more than a year. The group grows moreand more agitated as time goes by and life at the bus stop becomes increasingly un-pleasant because of the weather (cold wind, rain, snow, hail) and darkness.
22They
huddle together under a plastic sheet to keep warm. The buses still drive past themwithout stopping. At the realisation of the unnoticed departure of Silent Man and thegrowing uncertainty concerning the actual existence of the bus stop, the group, grownold by now, decides to walk to the city just like Silent Man.
23THE DRAMATURGY OF WAITING 235
21While most of the stage action in Beckett’s play defies conventional (Aristotelian) notions of ac –
tion, action in Gao’s play is generally open to analysis. Even social comment and criticism is
open and direct though partly ambiguous, as highlighted in the debate the play triggered off inChina. Cf. Zhao (2000: 71).
22The emphasis on darkness, coldness and mutual support contains distant similarities with thetramps’ exit in Waiting for Godot (52–54) and the end of White’s Signal Driver (94–96).
23For a positive interpretation of the Silent Man, see Zhao (2000: 132): “The scene is reminiscent
of the Silent Man in Bus Stop who walks away from the crowd and refuses to wait for the bus.
What is different now is that there is no ‘grand marching music’ accompanying his wise steps[…] While the Silent Man shames people by taking the initiative in life (that is, to be a hero) […]There are also distant allusions to that theme in Beckett’s play, as for example in Pozzo’s: “Yes,the road seems long when one journeys all alone […]” (WFG, 24.) For an insightful discussionabout the Silent Man, see William Tay’s essay on post-Mao theatre and The Bus Stop (Tay 1990:
111–118).

While Vladimir and Estragon fail to free themselves from the magic spell of
waiting24(as overtly underpinned in the play’s circular structure), Gao seems to en –
dow his characters with the strength and determination to overcome their perpetual
paralysis and delusion by relying on their collective strength and care for each other inthe impending journey:
25
GLASSES: ( Gazing at the GIRL, tenderly .) Let’s go.
GIRL: ( Nodding .) Yes.
MOTHER: Oh, where’s my bag?HOTHEAD: ( Happily .) I’m carrying it.
MOTHER: ( To the OLD MAN.) Watch your steps. ( Goes over to
support him .)
OLD MAN: Thank you very much.
(Helping and supporting each other, they are about to
start their journey together .)
DIRECTOR MA: Hey, wait, wait for me! I have to tie my shoelace.
26
(TBS, 285)
However, the very fact that the journey is accompanied by a “humorous grand
march”27(TBS, 285) and only “about to start” (not to mention the Beckett-like comic
deflation reflected in the concluding reference to Director Ma’s shoelace28and the cli-236 LI XIA
24See also the servant/slave figure in the relationship between Lucky and Pozzo and the character
Clov in Beckett’s Endgame (1958) who tries all his life to leave his blind and paralysed master
Hamm, but without success.
25The aspect of mutual care, gentleness and consideration (as a precondition for collective action)is occasionally too ideologically stylised and overexposed to be credible. (TBS, 275) On theother hand, it might also have been intended in order to make the play more acceptable to the au –
thorities and to deflect attention from formal experimentation and Gao’s innovative views on
theatrical aesthetics and practice.
26See also Ivy and Theo’s exit after their decision to wait no longer for “that blooming bus” (SD,95): “[IVY andTHEO disappear, supporting each other. As they go, the BEINGS sing, softly at
first, then with abandon, while the Aurora floods the sky .]” (SD, 95) There is also a direct hint
that the play will start all over again: “See you at the next screening.” (SD, 96)
27This could perhaps be taken as an ironic allusion to Mao’s Long March.
28Cf. Estragon’s obsessive preoccupation with his shoes throughout the play as a counterpoint toVladimir’s hat fetishism, sometimes even as a kind of mirror image of each other. (WFG, 10–11)The equivalent to Vladimir’s hat is Ivy’s “little supper hat” in White’s Signal Driver . (SD, 83)
However, it does not have the key role it has in Beckett’s play. The discrete and distant echo ofBeckett’s shoe imagery is one of the many instances which indicate Gao’s intimate knowledge ofBeckett’s Waiting for Godot . There is also a direct reference to shoe-laces in the scene where
Vladimir and Estragon stagger about the stage in their attempt to get on Estragon’s boots:
ESTRAGON: It fits.VLADIMIR: ( taking a string from his pocket ). We’ll try and lace it.
ESTRAGON: ( vehemently ). No, no laces, no laces!
VLADIMIR: You’ll be sorry. Let’s try the other. ( As before .)
Well?
ESTRAGON: ( grudgingly ). It fits too. (WFG, 69)

mactic repetition of “waiting” at the very end of the play), imbues the final scene of
The Bus Stop with an ambiguity hitherto insufficiently appreciated by critics.29Circu –
larity is also subtly alluded to in the reference to the relapse of the actors and actresses
into their old selves in the final stage direction: “The actors and actresses have all re –
turned to their respective characters”30(TBS, 284–285) and even more explicitly in
Gao’s reference to the “rondo” form as the play’s underlying structural principle: “Inthis play, I have borrowed the sonata and rondo forms to replace the conventionalIbsenesque structure.” (TBS, 286) Therefore, the end of the play is potentially highlyambiguous unlike Beckett’s Waiting for Godot where at the end of each act the inten –
tion of the two protagonists to leave is immediately negated in the respective stage di –
rections:
ESTRAGON: Well? Shall we go?
VLADIMIR: Pull on your trousers.ESTRAGON: What?VLADIMIR: Pull on your trousers.ESTRAGON: You want me to pull off my trousers?VLADIMIR: Pull on your trousers.ESTRAGON: ( realizing his trousers are down ). True.
He pulls up his trousers.
VLADIMIR: Well? Shall we go?ESTRAGON: Yes, let’s go.
They do not move. (WFG, 94 and 54)
Gao’s claim (for whatever reason) to have written The Bus Stop without reference
to Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and the theatre of the absurd31was called into question
almost instantly by the Beijing playwright and theatre critic Chen Shouzhu (and sub-sequently by other drama critics in China and the West).
32(Chen 1988: 261; Zhao
2000: 73) It is also not supported by the text itself which contains numerous elementswhich seem to suggest otherwise. Of course, Gao’s play clearly shows his dramaticsignature and a uniqueness of its own despite his sophisticated use of Beckett’s inge -THE DRAMATURGY OF WAITING 237
29See Zhao op. cit ., 132.
30See also Zhao (2000: 55): “For instance in Gao’s Bus Stop , the characters waiting for the bus in
the end turn into actors and sneer at the characters they had played a few moments earlier.” Zhaodraws attention to Gao’s dramatic practice (important also in his narrative prose) of turning char –
acters into actors or narrators and vice versa and locates the roots of it in Chinese opera. Perhaps
it should be pointed out in this context that the invisible “Beings” in White’s play function notonly as a kind of derelict chorus but also as narrators. While White externalises the two roles,Gao internalises the functions in one character.
31For an interesting view on this matter see Geremie Barmé’s observation: “In 1983, the Chineseplaywright Gao Xingjian commented that one of the reasons the theater of the absurd attracted solittle attention in China at that time was that real life was far more bizarre than anything thatcould be put on the stage.” (Barmé 1999: 410)
32However, there have also been critics in support of Gao’s claim. See Riley and Gissenwehrer(1989: 136f.).

niously explored theme of voluntary and/or involuntary waiting and an existential sit –
uation almost as absurd33as that of Vladimir and Estragon between the immobile tree
and the road passing by that tree. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Gao’s play hasbeen attacked by government authorities for political and ideological reasons
34and
subsequently by the conservative Beijing theatre establishment for following “the so –
cial perspective” and “the mode of writing” of the theatre of the absurd and above all
Beckett’s Waiting for Godot ,35an assertion the playwright promptly rejected on aes –
thetic and philosophical grounds as follows: “In my play, the characters have the urge
to leave, but because of external or personal reasons they are unable to. It is not thatthey are incapable of action. They want to leave but can’t. This is action, simple andpure, which runs through the whole play. In Beckett’s play, however, the two charac –
ters are just sitting there, refusing to leave. They talk from beginning to end, indulging
themselves in the game of language. Whereas Beckett negates the most basic rule oftheatre,
36I am reconfirming the ancient foundation of theatre – action.”37Henry Zhao,238 LI XIA
33The word is actually used by the Old Man in the translation by Yu, “This is outrageous;
(Coughing ) making passengers stand around and wait till their hair turns grey. ( Suddenly becom-
ing very old and decrepit .) Absurd .…really absurd.” (TBS, 265)
34See Zhao, op. cit ., 71: “Among the attacks, the essay that seemed best-orchestrated and most ma-
licious was ‘Three Critics Talking about Bus Stop’ (Chezhan sanren tan) by Tang Tin, Du Gao
and Zheng Bonong, who condemned the play for its ‘strong skepticism of the way of life in oursociety,’ and spreading doubts about ‘the status quo of our social life.’”
35For details on the debate on Gao’s play Bus Stop see also Zhao, op. cit ., 16f.: “For instance, in the
debate raging around Bus Stop , he categorically denied that the play could have been inspired by
Western Theatre of the Absurd, particularly by Waiting for Godot . When I re-read the debating
essays of the period, I was indeed surprised by the intensity of emotions on both sides. Gao’s at –
tackers seemed to think that once they could prove the existence of the influence, and bite firmly
on it, they would be able to send the play, the playwright, and even the whole ‘trend of modern –
ism’ to the grave. On the other side, Gao and his defenders refused to acknowledge any trace of
such influence with equal stubbornness, as if denying that they were guilty of a heinous crime.”
36Gao’s assertion is not correct, as there is a great deal of physical action taking place on and off thestage, as for example Pozzo’s treatment of Lucky, the hat routines, taking off pants and boots,urinating off stage, acting out objects (tree) and other acts of clownery, to name only a few.While White also makes extensive use of similar devices, Gao’s play relies much more on lan –
guage and incompatible stereotypical behaviour patterns for comic effects. Nevertheless, there is
also considerable physical action at the bus stop, but without overt clownery. Particularly irritat –
ing (not only verbally) is the character Hothead who enters the stage with a leap, shakes the rail –
ing, picks up stones, throws them at the passing bus. His actions annoy everyone, especially the
Old Man, highlighting the generation gap. It is, of course, largely action without symbolic or al –
legorical depth or action in an Aristotelian sense.
37“Jinghua Yetan,” Zhongshan (Purple Mountain ), No. 2, 1987, 200. Henry Zhao rightly points
out that Gao Xingjian’s emphasis on “action” echoes Jean-Paul Sartre’s comments on Waiting
for Godot in a speech at the Drama School of Paris in 1960. He also finds Gao’s argument not
very convincing. Zhao, op. cit ., 74. It should also be noted here that Gao’s view of the two char –
acters “just sitting there, refusing to leave” ignores the dramatic tension throughout the play be –
tween Vladimir and Estragon on the question of waiting and Vladimir’s fear of punishment at

who comments briefly on this statement in his perceptive study on Gao and Chinese
Theatre Experimentalism, is also not taken by Gao’s argument. (Zhao 2000: 74) WhatGao calls “action, simple and pure” is in essence not very different from that ofWhite’s and Beckett’s plays where the protagonists also want to make decisions, butare unable to do so, similar to Lucky and Pozzo and Clov’s inability to leave Hamm inBeckett’s Endgame . Significantly, dramatic tension arises in all the plays discussed
here from the contrapuntal relationship between action and inaction within the overallstructural metaphor of waiting for something to happen.
Without doubt, Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is the most memorable and powerful
dramatic model based on the apparently undramatic act of waiting and its existentialimplications which Martin Esslin identifies as the real subject of the play: “The sub –
ject of the play is not Godot but waiting, the act of waiting as an essential and charac –
teristic aspect of the human condition. Throughout our lives we always wait for some –
thing, and Godot simply represents the objective of our waiting – an event, a thing, a
person, a death. Moreover, it is in the act of waiting that we experience the flow oftime in its purest, most evident form.”
38(Esslin 1991: 50) Virtually every single char-
acter of Gao’s play reflects on his/her situation at the bus stop in a similar, though verypersonal (stereotypical) way. The Mother’s lament is probably the most touching andrepresentative of them: “It’s all because we are born women. We’re doomed by ourfate to endless waiting. First we wait for the right man to come along, and then we waitto get married. Then we wait for a child, after which we wait till the child grows up. Bythen we’ve already grown old….”
39(TBS, 265) The sentiment articulated by the
Mother highlights not only the internal tension between the experimental conceptionTHE DRAMATURGY OF WAITING 239
Estragon’s suggestion to simply “drop” Godot as reflected in his reply: “He’d punish us.” (WFG,
93) Godot is also associated with the Boy whose brother suffers from Godot’s beatings (WFG,51); this applies to Lucky’s dependence on Pozzo as well. However, there is no allusion to fear ofpunishment in Gao’s play.
38Gao’s The Bus Stop contains numerous references which echo Martin Esslin’s interpretative
comments on Waiting for Godot . Naturally, time is also a significant thematic facet of Gao’s
play. It functions not only as a dramatic structuring element accentuating the growing mood offrustration and anger of the individuals stranded at the bus stop, but also as a dramatic triggeringdevice for reflections on the nature of time and its impact on the individual in society, as for ex –
ample in the quasi-philosophical conversation between Glasses and Hothead on time as an “ob –
jective reality” in the context of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (TBS, 263–265), the Old Man’s
faith in science (TBS, 250) or in the ironic allusion to Director Ma’s “imported Omega.” (TBS,250)
39A similar view is expressed by the two invisible Beings, albeit more bluntly and cynical: “Sec –
ond Being: […] Ivy the woman was born to strife…/ Second Being: … and the bed…/ Second
Being: … and the bloods…/ First Being: … and the men-o-pause…/Second Being: Ivy themouse who thought she’d found the cheese./ First Being: Theo – too Australian-pasteurised?”(SD, 60) See also Pozzo’s view on women (the only reference to women in Beckett’s play): Theygive birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more." [WFG, 89]The plays clearly suggest that Gao’s understanding of women is much more positive with theirrole defined in the social context.

of Gao’s play (as intended replacement of what he calls “conventional Ibsenesque
dramatic structure,” TBS, 286) and consistent recourse to reality as a dramatic refer –
ence point, but also the conceptual distance to Beckett’s and White’s dramatic prac –
tice, in which reality (also in its linguistic manifestations) is camouflaged or obliter –
ated to disallow easy access to meaning in order to challenge the spectators’ percep –
tion and imagination.40However, in the “Author’s Suggestions for the Performance of
The Bus Stop ,” Gao defines theatrical representation of reality in terms of “artistic ab –
straction” or “essential likeness” rather than “realistic details.” (TBS, 226f.) At the
same time he emphasises the care to be taken “to present characters as real people incontemporary society.” (TBS, 287) He identifies the traditional Chinese opera as amodel for this approach and puts the onus on the director and actor to realise these ob –
jectives on stage.
No doubt, Gao’s interest as a playwright is primarily focused on the theatricality of
performance and dramaturgy, and only to a lesser degree on message and content orwhat has been called “philosophical probing.” (Zhao 2000: 86) This is also supportedby the fact that Gao has been directly involved in the production of his own plays
41
which has led to Henry Zhao’s characterisation of Gao as a “directorial playwright.”42
(Zhao 2000: 193) In the theoretical notes to his play, Gao also highlights the experi-mental nature of The Bus Stop with particular reference to the play’s conceptual affin-
ity to music as a means of achieving heightened dramatic expression. He attempts torealise his programmatic objective firstly by what he calls “polyphonic dialogues”and secondly by the replacement of conventional dramatic structure by the sonata androndo form and the use of a “leitmotif” and musical variations: “Since drama, like mu-sic, is an art governed by time, various musical forms can be applied to it. In this play,I have borrowed the sonata and rondo forms to replace the conventional Ibsenesquedramatic structure. The director, like the conductor, should concentrate on the chang –
ing moods of the play.” (TBS, 286)
However, in Gao’s concept of drama, the function of music is not designed to be
merely an external or ornamental structural feature, but an integral part of a total dra –
matic structure: “In this play, sound effects and dramatic situations work as a whole,
and the former often acts as a counterpoint to the latter. Harmonious combinations and240 LI XIA
40Gao’s emphasis on actor-spectator interaction has its roots in traditional Chinese theatre and to
some extent also in Jerzy Grotowski’s concept of “poor theatre.” See Tay (1990: 113f.). Gao’sselective use of Grotowski’s technique is highlighted in the stage premiere of Chezhan directed
by Lin Shaohua in 1983. (Zhao 2000: 49)
41Gao directed numerous performances of his plays outside of China: Vienna (1992), Sydney(1994), Veroli (1994), Paris (1995). For details, see Zhao (2000: 215–219).
42Gao has stressed the importance of the “director-like playwright” in theoretical statements (e.g .,
My View on Theatre ) and in most of his plays. At the centre of his concern lies the “directorial
tyranny” not only in the film industry, but also in the theatre: “Drama production is virtually thedirector’s sole domain. If this tendency continues, Gao argues, the art of playwriting will be re –
duced to a status similar to script-writing today in the film industry. Plays will no longer be
worthwhile publishing and preserving.” (Zhao 2000: 45)

disharmonious contrasts are used to give music an independent role, allowing it to
carry on a dialogue with both the characters and the audience. When conditions permitthe composition of original music for the entire play, the music of the SILENT MANshould be treated as a leitmotif with various musical variations.” (TBS, 286) In thecontext of the dominant structural feature of waiting and its inherent lack of dramatictension and action, the theatrical potential of “polyphonic dialogue” imbues the mo –
ments of inaction in the play with unexpected dramatic intensity and colour. The ex –
perimental significance of Gao’s dramatic manipulation of dialogue (“At times there
are two or three, and even as many as seven, characters speaking at once.” TBS, 286)is, however, doubtful and hardly innovative by Western standards, albeit theatricallyeffective. The playwright’s practice of mechanical fragmentation of the characters’speech and reassembly in a disjointed alternating fashion amounts to little more thansuperficial imitation of musical structures, which is more confusing than dramaticallyenriching, particularly for the spectator who is unable to piece together the meaning ofwhat is being said on the stage. And more importantly, the practice of “polyphonic di-alogue” is out of tune with the prevailing realistic stance of the characters’ language.Furthermore, it fails to add depth or complexity to the respective characters and theirdialogues which are essentially unambiguous, direct and coherent as for example theGirl’s (actor’s) private verbal reflections on the necessity to stop waiting for a bus andto march to the city:
43“Why are they not going?/Haven’t they said everything that can
be said?/Then why are they still not moving?/But time is slipping away!/I really don’tunderstand, don’t understand at all./They’re not going./Can we really go if we/wantto? Then tell them/to go quickly./How come they’re not going?/Let’s all go at once.”(TBS, 282–284) (The forward slashes indicate the fragmentation points of the Girl’sinner monologue and exhortation.) The dramatic crescendo in the articulation of theartificially jumbled and broken-up thoughts of the various characters echoes the roleof a cadenza in music and culminates in a final accord of collective concurrence ofwill and commitment to action.
44(TBS, 285)
However, dramatically more important in this context is Gao’s ingenious applica –
tion of the principle of “triplication”45which allows the characters waiting at the busTHE DRAMATURGY OF WAITING 241
43A less complex variation of Gao’s “polyphonic dialogue” technique can be found earlier in the
play when the Girl’s and the Mother’s speeches are “spoken simultaneously and weave togetheras they address the audience without interacting with each other.” (TBS, 267)
44The function of the “shifting self” in classical Chinese theatre is discussed in great detail in Riley(1997: 137–174). For the use of this technique in Lingshan (Soul Mountain ), see Mabel Lee’s in –
troduction to her English translation of the novel. (2000: ix)
45For details of Gao’s theory of “triplication,” see Zhao (2000: 50–56) and the relevant primary
and secondary literature listed there. The conversion of actor into role and vice versa used by Gaoas a dramatic device in The Bus Stop and in other plays is a relatively innovative feature by West –
ern standards which has generally received little critical attention with the exception of “quot –
ing” on stage. A more complex aspect of Gao’s theory of “triplication” is the use of what Zhao
calls “split personal pronouns” or “split-person reference” in his later plays. ‘Triplication’ is alsoan important structural (and thematic) feature of Gao’s fiction, as for example in Lingshan (Soul

stop to abandon their roles and to distance themselves from them under theatrically
spectacular and effective circumstances: “The sound of approaching vehicles be –
comes louder and louder, and the music of the SILENT MAN, like a sound from outer
space, floats above the roars and rumble of traffic. They all gaze ahead, some walkingtowards the audience, some remaining on stage. They all come out from their respec –
tive characters . Light in the theatre changes continuously while spotlighting the ac –
tors with varying degrees of brightness. The light on the stage disappears completely.
In the following dialogues, the seven persons speak at the same time. The speeches byA, F and G string together to make up one group and form complete sentences.” (TBS,281; italics mine.) At the very end of the play, the actors reassume their previous rolesunder equally spectacular circumstances: “The sound of zooming vehicles from allsides gets closer and closer, mixed with the honking of all kinds of cars. Light on thecentre stage becomes brighter. The actors and actresses have returned to their respec –
tive characters . The music of the SILENT MAN changes into a humorous grand
march.” (TBS, 284f.; italics mine.)
Despite the apparent ambiguity of the situation with regard to the actual translation
of intention and will into action, there is no ambiguity concerning the need of collec-tive support and care for one another in the absurdity of the situation, both in dialogueand in the final stage direction: “Helping and supporting each other, they are about tostart their journey.” (TBS, 285) Significantly, the importance of mutual help and sup-port in response to the absurdity of waiting is also highlighted in the dialogue andstage directions of the final scene of White’s Signal Driver and underlined by the
growing intensity of light: “IVY and THEO disappear, supporting each other. As theygo, the BEINGS sing, softly, at first, then with abandon, while the Aurora floods thesky.” (SD, 95) However, this seemingly positive message is overshadowed by the ref-erence (directed to the audience) of the FIRST and SECOND BEING to the perpetuityof waiting (“On His circuit the session is endless…” (SD, 96), the ambiguity of thelight and the bleakness of the chant of the two “super deros” (as Australian versions ofBeckett’s tramps) commenting on Ivy’s waiting for the “Bourke Connection”
46in
front of the deserted bus shelter and the ominous spectacle on the sky:
FIRST AND SECOND BEING: Gotter take a look
at what’s brewingnorth south east and west;geography or timedon’t mean change. (SD, 95)242 LI XIA
Mountain ) in which he not only explores the complexity of identity and “self” thematically, but
also in anthropological-historical terms. ( Soul Mountain , 307f.)
46It is only in old age that Ivy feels the urge to free herself from the past and to search for a deeper
purpose and meaning of existence; far-away Bourke becomes the metaphor of her longing forliberation and ultimate revelation: “I want to rub my hands in the dust, rub it on my cheeks, findout what I’ve been living for – in this country.” (SD, 88)

The dramatic conclusion of the ritual of waiting in White’s Signal Driver as an
ironic summary statement about Australian (suburban) society is much closer toBeckett’s play (not only linguistically) than The Bus Stop , which is theatrically per –
haps more effective. However, Gao’s play shares with Waiting for Godot a dimension
of genuine interest in humanity which is missing in White’s bleak visions of humanexistence, and yet disturbingly moving and memorable in Beckett’s apparently in –
comprehensible reality as for example when Lucky gets dragged around on a rope, or
when Estragon contemplates suicide:
VLADIMIR: He said that Godot was sure to come tomorrow.
(Pause ) What do you say to that?
ESTRAGON: Then all we have to do is to wait on here.VLADIMIR: Are you mad? We must take cover. ( He takes
Estragon by the arm .) Come on.
He draws Estragon after him. Estragon yields, thenresists. They halt.
ESTRAGON: ( looking at the tree ) Pity we haven’t got a bit of rope.
VLADIMIR: Come on. It’s cold.
He draws Estragon after him. As before. (WFG, 53)
While Beckett and White successfully probe into the unconscious of their charac-
ters, Gao’s dramatic interest in the human condition seems to be one-dimensional andguided by social commitment. And, despite his programmatic identification with ex-perimental theatre for the purpose of “enrichment of dramatic expression,” his playcontains a stark, didactic (moralising) element which reflects the playwright’s idealis-tic yearning for public good:
CARPENTER: There are still more good people than bad people in
this world, but you still have to be on your guard.Even if you don’t take advantage of others, othersmay take advantage of you.
OLD MAN: It is this wanting to take advantage of other people that’s so bad. You
push me, I step on you. If we could be more considerate of others, wewould all have an easier time.
MOTHER: If we could be close to each other and care for each other, wouldn’t it
be great? ( Silence. The sound of rustling wind .) (TBS, 275)
In the “roaring of cold wind,” this appeal for mutual care and consideration is in –
stantly translated into reality by the group stranded at the bus stop, as all of them (even
Hothead who has been less co-operative up to this point) move close together to keepwarm in preparation for their symbolic rebirth. (TBS, 275) Unfortunately, there isvery little in Gao’s play and its specific historical context which would suggest thatnoble sentiments of this nature will improve or ameliorate the well-being of society asa whole. On the contrary, the traffic (including the buses) is still oblivious of the wait –
ing people’s plight. It is also doubtful, whether the (melo)dramatic appeal to the audi –
ence is more effective. However laudable well-meaning expressions of goodwill and
advocacy of care and consideration for others might be, they alone will have little im -THE DRAMATURGY OF WAITING 243

pact on the status quo , locally and globally, as Bertold Brecht has pointed out convinc –
ingly in his play Saint Joan of the Stockyards and on numerous other occasions. They
are hardly more effective than Director Ma’s fixed idea of lodging a complaint withthe (traffic) authorities or filing a law suit against them which has to be understood atbest as comic relief and a send-up of a naïve and idealistic belief in justice. (TBS, 279)The main objective must rather be a sustained and educationally oriented promotionof critical self-consciousness and the individual’s self-realisation as a social being inthe context of dominant political forces and all-pervasive ideological manipulation.While solutions to these issues ought to be found in the first instance on a politicallevel, the individual has to be socially alert and willing to collaborate with others. Andwhile the Silent Man of Gao’s play might be presented as a model of private initiative,the message encoded in the play for the audience is clearly associated with collectiveself-reliance and initiative as an alternative to the folly of indefinite waiting for theworld to change as expressed succinctly by the aspiring student Glasses:
My head tells me I should start walking, but I’m not one hundred percent sure. What if it’s the
wrong decision? But I must make a decision! […] Go or wait? Wait or go? That is the questionof our existence. Perhaps fate has decreed that we should wait here for the rest of our lives, un-til we grow old, until we die. Why don’t people take their future in their own hands instead ofsubmitting to the dictates of fate? Then again, what is fate anyway? […] (TBS, 260)
These questions are by no means rhetorical or private, but directed to the audience as
thinly veiled exhortations to wait no longer and to search for answers.
In summary, the importance of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot as an inspirational ref-
erence point for White and Gao should be seen primarily in terms of a general identifi-cation with Beckett’s creative interpretation of the reality of human existence; how-ever, each of them in a modified form and a legitimacy of its own, determined by cul –
tural perspectives, historical (political) circumstances and highly personal views of
the nature of drama and the role of theatre in society. Despite the engulfing darknessof the night, the hostility of the elements and the barrenness of the location of the busstop, Gao’s play ends on a note of hope, though charged with ambiguity. In contrast, inWhite’s play even Godot’s tree falls victim to ruthless developers and human vulnera –
bility is exacerbated by technical progress, echoing the tragic fate of the old couple in
Part Two of Goethe’s Faust . But even more ominous: the “bloody sunset streaked
with black” of the opening scene at the bus stop and an early reference of one of theavatars to “yellow cake” (SD, 58) find a concluding climax in the apocalyptic ambigu –
ity of an Aurora Australis which takes possession of the whole theatre, signalling im –
pending (nuclear) disaster and enticing the avatars to a final grotesque song (and
dance) routine very much in the manner of Beckett’s Didi and Gogo:
The future’s dressing us up
in a few ragsfrom the attic;glad rags,tremendous drag.Even if we blow244 LI XIA

one another to bits,
there’ll be some of us leftto join in the jolly old ragtimecake-walk. (SD, 95–96)
White’s black poetic visions of collective vulnerability and impending disaster
have their roots in a society driven by materialism, prejudice, superficiality and ag –
gression associated overtly with the social and political circumstances of Australia as
a paradigm for progressive Western societies or the “Lucky Country” that the charac –
ters at Gao’s Bus Stop are desperately longing for and a world which lives on in the
two Beckett tramps as a blurred and distant memory of better times.
Waiting for something to happen, as a mode of life and all the absurdities associ –
ated with it, becomes a time of introspection, reflection and heightened self-aware –
ness. While the insights are culturally and historically different in the plays of Gao,
White, and Beckett, they also have one central theme in common, namely, the urgencyof protecting the individual from the domination and cruelty of the Pozzos (andGodots) of this world as poetically highlighted in Lucky’s first appearance on thestage with a rope around his neck and the subsequent brutality he has to endure. De-spite the ambiguities and absurdities in the three plays, the cry for help and resistancedirected to the audience is clear and unambiguous, although perhaps not as moving
and direct as in Vladimir’s instinctive response to Pozzo’s cries for help:
VLADIMIR: Let us not waste our time in idle discourse!
(Pause. Vehemently. ) Let us do something, while
we have a chance! It is not every day that we areneeded. Not indeed that we personally areneeded. Others would meet the case equally well,if not better. To all mankind they are addressed,those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But atthis place, at this moment of time, all mankind isus, whether we like it or not. Let us make the mostof it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthilyfor once the foul brood to which a cruel fateconsigned us. (WFG, 78)
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