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Waiting for Godínez: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts
By the author of Chicano Frankenstein, this is "Waiting for Godot" in a modern retelling with Borderlands immigration and ICE in the mix. This play has been workshopped and is being shopped to Los Angeles, Arizona, and NM stages.
Olivas’s extraordinary reimagining of a classic play lays bare the destructive and brutalizing effects of the United States’ anti-immigration policy on undocumented immigrants and their families. In Waiting for Godínez, the forever-waiting characters of Estragon and Vladimir are embodied in Jesús and Isabel, two Mexican friends living in the States. Each night Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents kidnap Jesús and throw him into a cage intending to deport him. But the agents forget to lock the cage, so Jesús escapes and makes his way back to Isabel as they wait for the mysterious Godínez in a city park. At one point Isabel looks upon her exhausted friend and laments, “What harm have you done to them? You are as much of this country as you are of México. But you are not home in either place. Ni de aquí, ni de allá.”
Waiting for Godínez humanizes the plight undocumented people face in a country that both needs and disdains them. Through a darkly comic absurdist lens, it implores us to reconsider this country’s policies in light of the fact that we are all human and deserve respect and dignity as we each try to make our way in a confusing and often indifferent world.
Olivas’s extraordinary reimagining of a classic play lays bare the destructive and brutalizing effects of the United States’ anti-immigration policy on undocumented immigrants and their families. In Waiting for Godínez, the forever-waiting characters of Estragon and Vladimir are embodied in Jesús and Isabel, two Mexican friends living in the States. Each night Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents kidnap Jesús and throw him into a cage intending to deport him. But the agents forget to lock the cage, so Jesús escapes and makes his way back to Isabel as they wait for the mysterious Godínez in a city park. At one point Isabel looks upon her exhausted friend and laments, “What harm have you done to them? You are as much of this country as you are of México. But you are not home in either place. Ni de aquí, ni de allá.”
Waiting for Godínez humanizes the plight undocumented people face in a country that both needs and disdains them. Through a darkly comic absurdist lens, it implores us to reconsider this country’s policies in light of the fact that we are all human and deserve respect and dignity as we each try to make our way in a confusing and often indifferent world.
80 pages, Paperback
Published September 2, 2025
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September 8, 2025
4.5
An updated take on Waiting for Godot in the wake of the horrors of ICE and anti-immigration policy. In this version, Jesús and Isabel, two Mexican friends(?) living in the US, are haunted, as every night ICE agents capture Jesús and lock him up in a cage. However, each night they forget to lock the cage and he escapes only to be captured again.
The play covers many aspects of the current crisis, including the lack of action and outrage. In this heartbreaking passage, Jesús questions why this keeps happening even when Isabel is sleeping right next to him:
Isabel: If you needed my help, why did you not cry out?
Jesús: Why did you not listen?
Isabel: There is nothing wrong with my ears.
Jesús: That makes it worse.
Many people I know don’t like Beckett because of the Post-modern ambiguity and absurdity, but the real genius of this text is that it has taken the playfulness and humor of the original and married it with a concrete political and humanitarian issue, which allows Beckett’s original absurdity to shine through in a new and focused way.
An updated take on Waiting for Godot in the wake of the horrors of ICE and anti-immigration policy. In this version, Jesús and Isabel, two Mexican friends(?) living in the US, are haunted, as every night ICE agents capture Jesús and lock him up in a cage. However, each night they forget to lock the cage and he escapes only to be captured again.
The play covers many aspects of the current crisis, including the lack of action and outrage. In this heartbreaking passage, Jesús questions why this keeps happening even when Isabel is sleeping right next to him:
Isabel: If you needed my help, why did you not cry out?
Jesús: Why did you not listen?
Isabel: There is nothing wrong with my ears.
Jesús: That makes it worse.
Many people I know don’t like Beckett because of the Post-modern ambiguity and absurdity, but the real genius of this text is that it has taken the playfulness and humor of the original and married it with a concrete political and humanitarian issue, which allows Beckett’s original absurdity to shine through in a new and focused way.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review