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Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot, the first stage play of S. Beckett, published in French as En attendant Godot, 1952, staged in French in Paris, 1953, first staged in English in Cambridge, 1955.
One of the most influential plays of the post-war period, it portrays two tramps, Estragon and Vladimir, trapped in an endless waiting for the arrival of a mysterious personage named Godot. They amuse themselves meanwhile with various bouts of repartee and word-play, and are for a while diverted by the arrival of whip-cracking Pozzo, driving the oppressed and burdened Lucky on the end of a rope. Towards the end of each of the two acts, a boy arrives, heralding Godot's imminent appearance, but he does not come; each act ends with the interchange between the two tramps, ‘Well, shall we go?’ ‘Yes, let's go’, and the stage direction, ‘They do not move.’ There are strong biblical references throughout, but Beckett's powerful and symbolic portrayal of the human condition as one of ignorance, delusion, paralysis, and intermittent flashes of human sympathy, hope, and wit has been subjected to many varying interpretations. (See also Absurd, Theatre of The.) |
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Cite this article
MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Waiting for Godot." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Waiting for Godot." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-WaitingforGodot.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Waiting for Godot." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-WaitingforGodot.html |
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Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot (1956). Samuel Beckett's absurdist “tragicomedy” told of two seedy men who joke, complain, and consider suicide while waiting for a blurry figure they called Godot. When he fails to appear they decide to leave, but stand perfectly still. This baffling play had its New York premiere at the John Golden Theatre in 1956 and enjoyed one of the longest runs (fifty‐nine performances) of any work of the theatre of the absurd, thanks in large measure to remarkable acting by Bert Lahr and E. G. Marshall. Lahr's performance was all the more remarkable in that he is reputed never to have understood a word he was speaking, but he had lots of company across the footlights. Often revived across America, Waiting for Godot enjoyed a nine‐month run in an Off Broadway revival in 1971 and a star‐studded, limited‐run mounting at Lincoln Center in 1988 was a hot ticket.
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Cite this article
Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Waiting for Godot." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Waiting for Godot." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-WaitingforGodot.html Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Waiting for Godot." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-WaitingforGodot.html |
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