Waiting for Godot (the proper name correctly pronounced "Goddo" , stressing the first syllable in contrast to the syllabically even stress typical of Standard French pronunciation) is a
play by
Samuel Beckett, in which two characters wait for someone named Godot, who never arrives. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's premiere. Voted "the most significant
English language play of the 20th century"
[Berlin, N., "Traffic of our stage: Why Waiting for Godot?" in The Massachusetts Review, Autumn 1999],
Waiting for Godot is Beckett's translation of his own original
French version,
En attendant Godot, and is subtitled (in English only), "a
tragicomedy in two acts".
[Ackerley, C. J. and Gontarski, S. E., (Eds.) The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett (London: Faber and Faber, 2006), p. 620.] The original French text was written "between 9 October 1948 and 29 January 1949 [...] after
Molloy and
Malone Dies but before
The Unnamable."
[Ackerley and Gontarski 2006, p. 172.]
The premiere was on 5 January
1953 in the
Théâtre de Babylone with
Roger Blin as the director who also played
Pozzo.
Plot synopsis
Act I
Waiting for Godot follows two consecutive days in the lives of a pair of men who divert themselves while they wait expectantly and unsuccessfully for someone named Godot to arrive. They claim him an acquaintance but in fact hardly know him, admitting that they would not recognise him were they to see him. To occupy themselves, they
eat,
sleep,
talk,
argue,
sing,
play games,
exercise,
swap hats, and contemplate
suicide — anything "to hold the terrible
silence at bay".
[The Times, 31 December 1964. Quoted in Knowlson, J., Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 57.] "Silence," says Beckett, "is pouring into this play like water into a sinking ship",
[McMillan D. and Knowlson, J., (eds) The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett, Vol. I: Waiting for Godot (London: Faber and Faber, 1993), p. xiv.] arguably both true and ironic, given the play's wordy banter and patter.
