Theater

“Waiting for Godot”: In an extraordinary coup for a regional company, Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre enlisted German director Walter Asmus, Samuel Beckett’s longtime friend and collaborator and a prominent authority on the author’s work, to helm this revival, the centerpiece of a star-studded Beckett Festival. The result shows why Beckett’s vision still matters. Asmus keeps his performers grounded in the simplicity and fierce honesty that separates Beckett from the pretensions of lesser imitators. In contrast to Hollywood cowboy bravado, this luminous staging shows us what real courage looks like.

-- Philip Brandes

Ends Sunday at the Rubicon Theatre, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. (805) 667-2900