Waiting for Godot

The play opens with two bedraggled acquaintances, Vladimir and Estragon, meeting by a leafless tree. Estragon notifies Vladimir of his most recent troubles: he spent the previous night lying in a ditch and received a beating from a number of anonymous assailants. The duo discuss a variety of issues at length, none of any apparent significance, and it is finally revealed that they are awaiting a man named Godot. They are not certain if they have ever met Godot, nor if he will even arrive.

Subsequently, an imperious traveler named Pozzo, along with his silent slave Lucky, arrives and pauses to converse with Vladimir and Estragon. Lucky is bound by a rope held by Pozzo, who forces Lucky to carry his heavy bags and physically punishes him if he deems Lucky's movements too lethargic. Pozzo states that he is on the way to the market, at which he intends to sell Lucky for profit. Following Pozzo's command "Think!", the otherwise mute Lucky performs a sudden dance and monologue: a torrent of academic-sounding phrases mixed with pure nonsense.[8] Pozzo and Lucky soon depart, leaving the bewildered Estragon and Vladimir to continue their wait for the absent Godot.

Eventually, a boy shows up and explains to Vladimir and Estragon that he is a messenger from Godot, and that Godot will not be arriving tonight, but surely tomorrow. Vladimir asks for descriptions of Godot, receiving only extremely brief or vague answers from the boy, who soon exits. Vladimir and Estragon then announce that they will also leave, but they remain onstage without moving.

Vladimir and Estragon are again waiting near the tree, which has grown a number of leaves since it was last seen in Act 1. Both men are still awaiting Godot. Lucky and Pozzo eventually reappear, but not as they were previously. Pozzo has become blind and Lucky is now fully mute. Pozzo cannot recall ever having met Vladimir and Estragon, who themselves cannot agree on when they last saw the travelers. Lucky and Pozzo exit shortly after their spirited encounter, leaving Vladimir and Estragon to go on waiting.

Soon after, the boy reappears to report that Godot will not be coming. The boy states that he has not met Vladimir and Estragon before and he is not the same boy who talked to Vladimir yesterday, which causes Vladimir to burst into a rage at the child, demanding that the boy remember him the next day so as to avoid repeating this encounter once more. After the boy exits, Vladimir and Estragon consider suicide, but they do not have a rope with which to hang themselves. They decide to leave and return the day after with a rope, but again they merely remain motionless as the scene fades to black.

Vladimir and Estragon (The Doon School, India, 2010)

When Beckett started writing he did not have a visual image of Vladimir and Estragon. They are never referred to as tramps in the text, though they are often performed in tramps’ costumes on stage. Roger Blin advises: "Beckett heard their voices, but he couldn't describe his characters to me. [He said]: 'The only thing I'm sure of is that they're wearing bowlers.' "[10] "The bowler hat was of course de rigueur for men in many social contexts when Beckett was growing up in Foxrock, and [his father] commonly wore one."[11] The play does indicate that the clothes worn at least by Estragon are shabby. When told by Vladimir that he should have been a poet, Estragon says he was, gestures to his rags, and asks if it were not obvious.

There are no physical descriptions of either of the two characters; however, the text indicates that Vladimir is the heavier of the pair: the contemplation-of-suicide scene tells us exactly that. The bowlers and other broadly comic aspects of their personae have reminded modern audiences of Laurel and Hardy, who occasionally played tramps in their films. "The hat-passing game in Waiting for Godot and Lucky's inability to think without his hat on are two obvious Beckett derivations from Laurel and Hardy – a substitution of form for essence, covering for reality", wrote Gerald Mast in The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies.[12] Their "blather", which includes Hiberno-English idioms, indicated that they are both Irish.[13]

Vladimir stands through most of the play whereas Estragon sits down numerous times and even dozes off. "Estragon is inert and Vladimir restless."[14] Vladimir looks at the sky and muses on religious or philosophical matters. Estragon "belongs to the stone",[15] preoccupied with mundane things such as what he can get to eat and how to ease his physical aches and pains; he is direct, intuitive. The monotonous, ritualistic means by which Estragon continuously sits upon the stone may be likened to the constant nail filing carried out by Winnie in Happy Days, another of Beckett's plays, both actions representing the slow, deliberate erosion of the characters' lives. He finds it hard to remember but can recall certain things when prompted, e.g., when Vladimir asks: "Do you remember the Gospels?"[16] Estragon tells Vladimir about the coloured maps of the Holy Land and that he planned to honeymoon by the Dead Sea; it is his short-term memory that is poorest and suggests that he may, in fact, be suffering from Alzheimer disease.[17] Al Alvarez writes: "But perhaps Estragon's forgetfulness is the cement binding their relationship together. He continually forgets, Vladimir continually reminds him; between them they pass the time."[18] Estragon's forgetfulness affords the author a certain narrative utility also, allowing for the mundane, empty conversations held between him and Vladimir to continue seamlessly. They have been together for fifty years but when asked by Pozzo they do not reveal their actual ages. Vladimir's life is not without its discomforts too but he is the more resilient of the pair. "Vladimir's pain is primarily mental anguish, which would thus account for his voluntary exchange of his hat for Lucky's, thus signifying Vladimir's symbolic desire for another person's thoughts."[19] These characterizations, for some, represented the act of thinking or mental state (Vladimir) and physical things or the body (Estragon).[20] This is visually depicted by Vladimir's continuous attention to his hat and Estragon to his boots. While the two characters are temperamentally opposite, with their differing responses to a situation, they are both essential as demonstrated in the way Vladimir's metaphysical musings were balanced by Estragon's physical demands.[21]

The above characterizations, particularly that which concerns their existential situation, are also demonstrated in one of the play's recurring themes, which is sleep.[22] There are two instances when Estragon falls asleep in the play and has nightmares, about which he wanted to tell Vladimir when he woke. The latter refuses to hear it since he could not tolerate the sense of entrapment experienced by the dreamer during each episode. This idea of entrapment supports the view that the setting of the play may be understood more clearly as dream-like landscape, or, a form of Purgatory, from which neither man can escape. One interpretation noted the link between the two characters' experiences and the way they represent them: the impotence in Estragon's nightmare and Vladimir's predicament of waiting as his companion sleeps.[22] It is also said that sleep and impatience allow the spectators to distinguish between the two main characters, that sleep expresses Estragon's focus on his sensations while Vladimir's restlessness shows his focus on his thoughts.[23] This particular aspect involving sleep is indicative of what some called a pattern of duality in the play.[24] In the case of the protagonists, the duality involves the body and the mind, making the characters complementary.[23]

Throughout the play the couple refer to each other by the pet names "Didi" and "Gogo", although the boy addresses Vladimir as "Mister Albert". Beckett originally intended to call Estragon "Lévy" but when Pozzo questions him he gives his name as "Magrégor, André"[25] and also responds to "Catulle" in French or "Catullus" in the first Faber edition. This became "Adam" in the American edition. Beckett's only explanation was that he was "fed up with Catullus".[26]

Vivian Mercier described Waiting for Godot as a play which "has achieved a theoretical impossibility – a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice."[27] Mercier once questioned Beckett on the language used by the pair: "It seemed to me...he made Didi and Gogo sound as if they had earned PhDs. 'How do you know they hadn't?' was his reply."[28] They clearly have known better times, such as a visit to the Eiffel Tower and grape-harvesting by the Rhône; this is about all either has to say about their pasts, save for Estragon's claim to have been a poet, an explanation Estragon provides to Vladimir for his destitution. In the first stage production, which Beckett oversaw, both are "more shabby-genteel than ragged...Vladimir at least is capable of being scandalised...on a matter of etiquette when Estragon begs for chicken bones or money."[29]

Pozzo and Lucky have been together for sixty years.[30] Pozzo controls Lucky by means of an extremely long rope, which he jerks and tugs if Lucky is the least bit slow.

It has been contended that "Pozzo and Lucky are simply Didi and Gogo writ large", unbalanced as their relationship is.[31] However, Pozzo's dominance is superficial; "upon closer inspection, it becomes evident that Lucky always possessed more influence in the relationship, for he danced, and more importantly, thought – not as a service, but in order to fill a vacant need of Pozzo: he committed all of these acts for Pozzo. As such, since the first appearance of the duo, the true slave had always been Pozzo."[19] Pozzo credits Lucky with having given him all the culture, refinement, and ability to reason that he possesses. His rhetoric has been learned by rote. Pozzo's "party piece" on the sky is a clear example: as his memory crumbles, he finds himself unable to continue under his own steam.

Little is learned about Pozzo besides the fact that he is on his way to the fair to sell his slave, Lucky. He presents himself very much as the Ascendancy landlord, bullying and conceited. His pipe is made by Kapp and Peterson, Dublin's best-known tobacconists (their slogan was "The thinking man's pipe") which he refers to as a "briar" but which Estragon calls a "dudeen", emphasizing the differences in their social standing. He confesses to a poor memory but it is more a result of an abiding self-absorption. "Pozzo is a character who has to overcompensate. That's why he overdoes things ... and his overcompensation has to do with a deep insecurity in him. These were things Beckett said, psychological terms he used."[32] Beckett's advice to the American director Alan Schneider was: "[Pozzo] is a hypomaniac and the only way to play him is to play him mad."[14]

"In his [English] translation ... Beckett struggled to retain the French atmosphere as much as possible, so that he delegated all the English names and places to Lucky, whose own name, he thought, suggested such a correlation".[33]

Lucky appears to be the subservient member of their relationship, at least initially, carrying out every task that Pozzo bids him to do without question, portraying a form of "dog-like devotion" to his master.[34] He struggles with a heavy suitcase, falling on a number of occasions, only to be helped and held up by Estragon and Vladimir.

Lucky speaks only once in the play and it is in response to Pozzo's order to "think" for Estragon and Vladimir. The ostensibly abstract philosophical meanderings supplied to the audience by Lucky during his speech have been described as "a flood of completely meaningless gibberish" by Martin Esslin in his essay, "The Theatre of the Absurd".[35] Esslin suggests that this seemingly involuntary, philosophical spouting is an example of the actor's working "against the dialogue rather than with it",[35] providing grounds for Esslin's claims that the "fervor of delivery" in the play must "stand in a dialectical contrast to the pointlessness of the meaning of the lines".[35]

Jean Martin, who originated the role of Lucky in Paris in 1953, spoke to a doctor named Marthe Gautier, who was working at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. Martin asked if she knew of a physiological reason that would explain Lucky's voice as it was written in the text. Gautier suggested Parkinson's disease, which, she said, "begins with a trembling, which gets more and more noticeable, until later the patient can no longer speak without the voice shaking". Martin began incorporating this idea into his rehearsals.[36] Beckett and the director may not have been completely convinced, but they expressed no objections.[37] When Martin mentioned to the playwright that he was "playing Lucky as if he were suffering from Parkinson's", Beckett responded by saying "Yes, of course", and mentioning that his own mother had Parkinson's.[38]

When Beckett was asked why Lucky was so named, he replied, "I suppose he is lucky to have no more expectations..."[39]

Estragon and the boy (University of Chicago, 2020)

The cast list specifies only one boy.

The boy in Act I, a local lad, assures Vladimir that this is the first time he has seen him. He says he was not there the previous day. He confirms he works for Mr. Godot as a goatherd. His brother, whom Godot beats, is a shepherd. Godot feeds both of them and allows them to sleep in his hayloft.

The boy in Act II also assures Vladimir that it was not he who called upon them the day before. He insists that this too is his first visit. When Vladimir asks what Godot does the boy tells him, "He does nothing, sir."[40] We also learn he has a white beard – possibly, the boy is not certain. This boy also has a brother who it seems is sick but there is no clear evidence to suggest that his brother is the boy who came in Act I or the one who came the day before that.

Whether the boy from Act I is the same boy from Act II or not, both boys are polite yet timid. In the first act, the boy, despite arriving while Pozzo and Lucky are still about, does not announce himself until after Pozzo and Lucky leave, saying to Vladimir and Estragon that he waited for the other two to leave out of fear of the two men and of Pozzo's whip; the boy does not arrive early enough in Act II to see either Lucky or Pozzo. In both acts, the boy seems hesitant to speak very much, saying mostly "Yes Sir" or "No Sir", and winds up exiting by running away.

The identity of Godot has been the subject of much debate. "When Colin Duckworth asked Beckett point-blank whether Pozzo was Godot, the author replied: 'No. It is just implied in the text, but it's not true.' "[41]

Deirdre Bair says that though "Beckett will never discuss the implications of the title", she suggests two stories that both may have at least partially inspired it. The first is that because feet are a recurring theme in the play, Beckett has said the title was suggested to him by the slang French term for boot: "godillot, godasse". The second story, according to Bair, is that Beckett once encountered a group of spectators at the French Tour de France bicycle race, who told him "Nous attendons Godot" – they were waiting for a competitor whose name was Godot.[42]

"Beckett said to Peter Woodthorpe that he regretted calling the absent character 'Godot', because of all the theories involving God to which this had given rise."[43] "I also told [Ralph] Richardson that if by Godot I had meant God I would [have] said God, and not Godot. This seemed to disappoint him greatly."[44] That said, Beckett did once concede, "It would be fatuous of me to pretend that I am not aware of the meanings attached to the word 'Godot', and the opinion of many that it means 'God'. But you must remember – I wrote the play in French, and if I did have that meaning in my mind, it was somewhere in my unconscious and I was not overtly aware of it."[45] (Note: the French word for 'God' is 'Dieu'.) However, "Beckett has often stressed the strong unconscious impulses that partly control his writing; he has even spoken of being 'in a trance' when he writes."[46] While Beckett stated he originally had no knowledge of Balzac's play Mercadet ou le faiseur, whose character Godeau has an identical-sounding name and is involved in a similar situation, it has been suggested he may have been instead influenced by The Lovable Cheat,[47] a minor adaptation of Mercadet starring Buster Keaton, whose works Beckett had admired,[48] and whom he later sought out for Film.

Unlike elsewhere in Beckett's work, no bicycle appears in this play, but Hugh Kenner in his essay "The Cartesian Centaur"[49] reports that Beckett once, when asked about the meaning of Godot, mentioned "a veteran racing cyclist, bald, a 'stayer', recurrent placeman in town-to-town and national championships, Christian name elusive, surname Godeau, pronounced, of course, no differently from Godot." Waiting for Godot is clearly not about track cycling, but it is said that Beckett himself did wait for French cyclist Roger Godeau (1920–2000; a professional cyclist from 1943 to 1961), outside the velodrome in Roubaix.[50][51]

Of the two boys who work for Godot only one appears safe from beatings, "Beckett said, only half-jokingly, that one of Estragon's feet was saved".[52]

The name "Godot" is pronounced in Britain and Ireland with the emphasis on the first syllable, /ˈɡɒdoʊ/ GOD-oh;[2] in North America it is usually pronounced with an emphasis on the second syllable, /ɡəˈdoʊ/ gə-DOH. Beckett himself said the emphasis should be on the first syllable, and that the North American pronunciation is a mistake.[53] Georges Borchardt, Beckett's literary agent, and who represents Beckett's literary estate, has always pronounced "Godot" in the French manner, with equal emphasis on both syllables. Borchardt checked with Beckett's nephew, Edward, who told him his uncle pronounced it that way as well.[2] The 1956 Broadway production split the difference by having Vladimir pronounce "Godot" with equal stress on both syllables (goh-doh) and Estragon pronounce it with the accent on the second syllable (g'doh).[54][55]

"It was seen as an allegory of the Cold War"[69] or of French Resistance to the Germans. Graham Hassell writes, "[T]he intrusion of Pozzo and Lucky [...] seems like nothing more than a metaphor for Ireland's view of mainland Britain, where society has ever been blighted by a greedy ruling élite keeping the working classes passive and ignorant by whatever means."[70]

The play was written shortly after World War II, during which Beckett and his partner were forced to flee occupied Paris to avoid arrest, owing to their affiliation with the French Resistance. After the war, Beckett volunteered for the Red Cross in the French city Saint-Lô, which had been almost completely destroyed during the D-Day fighting. These experiences would have likely had a severe impact on both Beckett's personal politics, as well as his views on the prevailing policies that informed the period in which he found himself.[71]

Vladimir and Estragon are often played with Irish accents, as in the Beckett on Film project. This, some feel, is an inevitable consequence of Beckett's rhythms and phraseology, but it is not stipulated in the text. At any rate, they are not of English stock: at one point early in the play, Estragon mocks the English pronunciation of "calm" and has fun with "the story of the Englishman in the brothel".[72]

"Bernard Dukore develops a triadic theory in Didi, Gogo and the absent Godot, based on Sigmund Freud's trinitarian description of the psyche in The Ego and the Id (1923) and the usage of onomastic techniques. Dukore defines the characters by what they lack: the rational Go-go embodies the incomplete ego, the missing pleasure principle: (e)go-(e)go. Di-di (id-id) – who is more instinctual and irrational – is seen as the backward id or subversion of the rational principle. Godot fulfills the function of the superego or moral standards. Pozzo and Lucky are just re-iterations of the main protagonists. Dukore finally sees Beckett's play as a metaphor for the futility of man's existence when salvation is expected from an external entity, and the self is denied introspection."[73]

"The four archetypal personalities or the four aspects of the soul are grouped in two pairs: the ego and the shadow, the persona and the soul's image (animus or anima). The shadow is the container of all our despised emotions repressed by the ego. Lucky, the shadow, serves as the polar opposite of the egocentric Pozzo, prototype of prosperous mediocrity, who incessantly controls and persecutes his subordinate, thus symbolising the oppression of the unconscious shadow by the despotic ego. Lucky's monologue in Act I appears as a manifestation of a stream of repressed unconsciousness, as he is allowed to "think" for his master. Estragon's name has another connotation, besides that of the aromatic herb, tarragon: "estragon" is a cognate of estrogen, the female hormone (Carter, 130). This prompts us to identify him with the anima, the feminine image of Vladimir's soul. It explains Estragon's propensity for poetry, his sensitivity and dreams, his irrational moods. Vladimir appears as the complementary masculine principle, or perhaps the rational persona of the contemplative type."[74]

Broadly speaking, existentialists hold that there are certain fundamental questions that all human beings must come to terms with if they are to take their subjective existences seriously and with intrinsic value. Questions such as life, death, the meaning of human existence and the place of God in that existence are among them. By and large, the theories of existentialism assert that conscious reality is very complex and without an "objective" or universally known value: the individual must create value by affirming it and living it, not by simply talking about it or philosophising it in the mind. The play may be seen to touch on all of these issues.

Martin Esslin, in his The Theatre of the Absurd (1960), argued that Waiting for Godot was part of a broader literary movement that he called the Theatre of the Absurd, a form of theatre that stemmed from the absurdist philosophy of Albert Camus. Absurdism itself is a branch of the traditional assertions of existentialism, pioneered by Søren Kierkegaard, and posits that, while inherent meaning might very well exist in the universe, human beings are incapable of finding it due to some form of mental or philosophical limitation. Thus, humanity is doomed to be faced with the Absurd, or the absolute absurdity of the existence in lack of intrinsic purpose.[75]

Just after Didi and Gogo have been particularly selfish and callous, the boy comes to say that Godot is not coming. The boy (or pair of boys) may be seen to represent meekness and hope before compassion is consciously excluded by an evolving personality and character, and in which case may be the youthful Pozzo and Lucky. Thus Godot is compassion and fails to arrive every day, as he says he will. No-one is concerned that a boy is beaten.[76] In this interpretation, there is the irony that only by changing their hearts to be compassionate can the characters fixed to the tree move on and cease to have to wait for Godot.

Much of the play is steeped in scriptural allusion. The boy from Act I mentions that he and his brother mind Godot's sheep and goats. Much can be read into Beckett's inclusion of the story of the two thieves from Luke 23:39–43[77] and the ensuing discussion of repentance. It is easy to see the solitary tree as representative of the Christian cross or the tree of life. Some see God and Godot as one and the same. Vladimir's "Christ have mercy upon us!"[78] could be taken as evidence that that is at least what he believes.

Another, perhaps less conspicuous, potentially religious, element in the play, is Pozzo's bout with blindness, during which he comes to resemble the biblical figure of Bartimaeus or 'The Blind Beggar'.

This reading is given further weight early in the first act when Estragon asks Vladimir what it is that he has requested from Godot:[79]

Vladimir: Oh ... nothing very definite.
Estragon: A kind of prayer.
Vladimir: Precisely.
Estragon: A vague supplication.
Vladimir: Exactly.

Other explicit Christian elements that are mentioned in the play include, but are not limited to, repentance,[80] the Gospels,[81] a Saviour,[82] human beings made in God's image,[83] the cross,[84] and Cain and Abel.[85]

According to biographer Anthony Cronin, "[Beckett] always possessed a Bible, at the end more than one edition, and Bible concordances were always among the reference books on his shelves."[86] Beckett himself was quite open on the issue: "Christianity is a mythology with which I am perfectly familiar so I naturally use it."[87] As Cronin argues, these biblical references "may be ironic or even sarcastic".[88]

"In answer to a defence counsel question in 1937 (during the libel action brought by his uncle against Oliver St. John Gogarty) as to whether he was a Christian, Jew or atheist, Beckett replied, 'None of the three' ".[89] Looking at Beckett's entire œuvre, Mary Bryden observed that "the hypothesised God who emerges from Beckett's texts is one who is both cursed for his perverse absence and cursed for his surveillant presence. He is by turns dismissed, satirised, or ignored, but he, and his tortured son, are never definitively discarded."[90]

Waiting for Godot has been described as a "metaphor for the long walk into Roussillon, when Beckett and Suzanne slept in haystacks ... during the day and walked by night ... [or] of the relationship of Beckett to Joyce".[91] Beckett told Ruby Cohn that Caspar David Friedrich's painting Two Men Contemplating the Moon, which he saw on his journey to Germany in 1936, was a source for the play.[92]

Though the sexuality of Vladimir and Estragon is not always considered by critics,[93][94] some see the two vagabonds as an ageing homosexual couple, who are worn out, with broken spirits, impotent and not engaging sexually any longer. The two appear to be written as a parody of a married couple.[95] Peter Boxall points out that the play features two characters who seem to have shared life together for years; they quarrel, embrace, and are mutually dependent.[96] Beckett was interviewed at the time the play was premiering in New York, and, speaking of his writings and characters in general, Beckett said "I'm working with impotence, ignorance. I don't think impotence has been exploited in the past."[97] Vladimir and Estragon's consideration of hanging themselves can be seen as a desperate way to achieve at least one final erection.

Pozzo and his slave, Lucky, arrive on the scene. Pozzo is a stout man, who wields a whip and holds a rope around Lucky's neck. Some critics have considered that the relationship of these two characters is homosexual and sado-masochistic in nature.[98] Lucky's long speech is a torrent of broken ideas and speculations regarding man, sex, God, and time. It has been said that the play contains little or no sexual hope; which is the play's lament, and the source of the play's humour and comedic tenderness.[99] Norman Mailer wonders if Beckett might be restating the sexual and moral basis of Christianity, that life and strength is found in an adoration of those in the lower depths where God is concealed.[100]

Beckett was not open to most interpretative approaches to his work. He famously objected when, in the 1980s, several women's acting companies began to stage the play. "Women don't have prostates", said Beckett,[101] a reference to the fact that Vladimir frequently has to leave the stage to urinate.

In 1988 a Dutch theatre company, De Haarlemse Toneelschuur, put on a production directed by Matin Van Veldhuizen with all female actors, using a French-to-Dutch translation by Jacoba Van Velde.[102] Beckett brought an unsuccessful lawsuit against the theatre company. "The issue of gender seemed to him to be so vital a distinction for a playwright to make that he reacted angrily, instituting a ban on all productions of his plays in The Netherlands."[103] This ban was short-lived, however: in 1991 (two years after Beckett's death), a French judge ruled that productions with female casts would not cause excessive damage to Beckett's legacy, and allowed the play to be performed by the all-female cast of the Brut de Beton theater company at the Avignon Festival, although an objection by Beckett's representative had to be read before each performance.[104]

The Italian Pontedera Theatre Foundation won a similar claim in 2006 when it cast two actresses in the roles of Vladimir and Estragon, albeit in the characters' traditional roles as men.[105] At the 1995 Acco Festival, director Nola Chilton staged a production with Daniella Michaeli in the role of Lucky.[106]

"[O]n 17 February 1952 ... an abridged version of the play was performed in the studio of the Club d'Essai de la Radio and was broadcast on [French] radio ... [A]lthough he sent a polite note that Roger Blin read out, Beckett himself did not turn up."[107] Part of his introduction reads:

I don't know who Godot is. I don't even know (above all don't know) if he exists. And I don't know if they believe in him or not – those two who are waiting for him. The other two who pass by towards the end of each of the two acts, that must be to break up the monotony. All I knew I showed. It's not much, but it's enough for me, by a wide margin. I'll even say that I would have been satisfied with less. As for wanting to find in all that a broader, loftier meaning to carry away from the performance, along with the program and the Eskimo pie, I cannot see the point of it. But it must be possible ... Estragon, Vladimir, Pozzo, Lucky, their time and their space, I was able to know them a little, but far from the need to understand. Maybe they owe you explanations. Let them supply it. Without me. They and I are through with each other.[108]

The play was first published in September 1952 by Les Éditions de Minuit[109][110] and released on 17 October 1952 in advance of the first full theatrical performance;[111] only 2500 copies were printed of this first edition.[112] On 4 January 1953, "[t]hirty reviewers came to the générale of En attendant Godot before the public opening ... Contrary to later legend, the reviewers were kind ... Some dozen reviews in daily newspapers range[d] from tolerant to enthusiastic ... Reviews in the weeklies [were] longer and more fervent; moreover, they appeared in time to lure spectators to that first thirty-day run"[113] which began on 5 January 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone, Paris. Early public performances were not, however, without incident: during one performance "the curtain had to be brought down after Lucky's monologue as twenty, well-dressed, but disgruntled spectators whistled and hooted derisively ... One of the protesters [even] wrote a vituperative letter dated 2 February 1953 to Le Monde."[114]

The cast comprised Pierre Latour (Estragon), Lucien Raimbourg (Vladimir), Jean Martin (Lucky) and Roger Blin (Pozzo). The actor due to play Pozzo found a more remunerative role and so the director – a shy, lean man in real life – had to step in and play the stout bombaster himself with a pillow amplifying his stomach. Both boys were played by Serge Lecointe. The entire production was done on the thinnest of shoestring budgets; the large battered valise that Martin carried "was found among the city's refuse by the husband of the theatre dresser on his rounds as he worked clearing the dustbins",[115] for example.

A particularly significant production – from Beckett's perspective – took place in Lüttringhausen Prison near Remscheid in Germany. An inmate obtained a copy of the French first edition, translated it himself into German and obtained permission to stage the play. The first night had been on 29 November 1953. He wrote to Beckett in October 1954: "You will be surprised to be receiving a letter about your play Waiting for Godot, from a prison where so many thieves, forgers, toughs, homos, crazy men and killers spend this bitch of a life waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting. Waiting for what? Godot? Perhaps."[116] Beckett was intensely moved and intended to visit the prison to see a last performance of the play but it never happened. This marked "the beginning of Beckett's enduring links with prisons and prisoners ... He took a tremendous interest in productions of his plays performed in prisons."[117]

Like all of Beckett's translations, the English translation of Waiting for Godot is not simply a literal translation of En attendant Godot. "Small but significant differences separate the French and English text. Some, like Vladimir's inability to remember the farmer's name (Bonnelly[118]), show how the translation became more indefinite, attrition and loss of memory more pronounced."[119] A number of biographical details were removed, all adding to a general "vaguening"[120] of the text which he continued to trim for the rest of his life.

The English-language premiere was on 3 August 1955 at the Arts Theatre, London, directed by the 24-year-old Peter Hall. During an early rehearsal Hall told the cast "I haven't really the foggiest idea what some of it means ... But if we stop and discuss every line we'll never open."[121] Again, the printed version preceded it (New York: Grove Press, 1954) but Faber's "mutilated" edition did not materialise until 1956. A "corrected" edition was subsequently produced in 1965. "The most accurate text is in Theatrical Notebooks I, (Ed.) Dougald McMillan and James Knowlson (Faber and Grove, 1993). It is based on Beckett's revisions for his Schiller-Theater production (1975) and the London San Quentin Drama Workshop, based on the Schiller production but revised further at the Riverside Studios (March 1984)."[122]

In the 1950s, theatre was strictly censored in the UK, to Beckett's amazement since he thought it a bastion of free speech. The Lord Chamberlain insisted that the word "erection" be removed, " 'Fartov' became 'Popov' and Mrs Gozzo had 'warts' instead of 'clap' ".[123] Indeed, there were attempts to ban the play completely. Lady Dorothy Howitt wrote to the Lord Chamberlain, saying: "One of the many themes running through the play is the desire of two old tramps continually to relieve themselves. Such a dramatisation of lavatory necessities is offensive and against all sense of British decency."[124] "The first unexpurgated version of Godot in England ... opened at the Royal Court on 30 December 1964."[125]

The London run was not without incident. The actor Peter Bull, who played Pozzo, recalls the reaction of that first night audience:

En attendant Godot, 1978 Festival d'Avignon, directed by Otomar Krejča

Waves of hostility came whirling over the footlights, and the mass exodus, which was to form such a feature of the run of the piece, started quite soon after the curtain had risen. The audible groans were also fairly disconcerting ... The curtain fell to mild applause, we took a scant three calls (Peter Woodthorpe reports only one curtain call[126]) and a depression and a sense of anti-climax descended on us all.[127]

The critics were less than kind but "[e]verything changed on Sunday 7 August 1955 with Kenneth Tynan's and Harold Hobson's reviews in The Observer and The Sunday Times. Beckett was always grateful to the two reviewers for their support ... which more or less transformed the play overnight into the rage of London."[128] "At the end of the year, the Evening Standard Drama Awards were held for the first time ... Feelings ran high and the opposition, led by Sir Malcolm Sargent, threatened to resign if Godot won [The Best New Play category]. An English compromise was worked out by changing the title of the award. Godot became The Most Controversial Play of the Year. It is a prize that has never been given since."[129]

On 27 April 1960, the BBC Third Programme broadcast the very first radio adaptation, directed by Donald McWhinnie, with Patrick Magee as Vladimir, Wilfrid Brambell as Estragon, Felix Felton as Pozzo, Donal Donnelly as Lucky and Jeremy Ward as The Boy.[130]

On 26 June 1961, Donald McWhinnie directed a production broadcast on BBC Television, with Jack MacGowran as Vladimir, Peter Woodthorpe as Estragon, Felix Felton as Pozzo, Timothy Bateson as Lucky and Mark Mileham as The Boy.[131]

On 5 February 1962, the BBC Home Service broadcast a radio production as part of the From the Fifties series, directed by Robin Midgley with Nigel Stock as Vladimir, Kenneth Griffith as Estragon, Philip Leaver as Pozzo, Andrew Sachs as Lucky and Terry Raven as The Boy.[132]

In December 1964, Nicol Williamson played Vladimir, Alfred Lynch played Estragon and Jack MacGowran played Lucky in a production at London's Royal Court Theatre directed by Anthony Page. This was the first West End revival since the play's British première.

Planning for an American tour for Waiting for Godot started in 1955. The first American tour was directed by Alan Schneider and produced by Michael Myerberg. Bert Lahr and Tom Ewell acted in the initial production.

The first part of the tour was a disaster. The play was originally set to be shown in Washington and Philadelphia. However, low advance sales forced the play to be performed in Miami for two weeks in early January 1956 at the newly opened Coconut Grove Playhouse, where the audience was made up of vacationers.[133] It had been promoted as "the laugh sensation of two continents" in the notices run by Myerberg in the local newspapers.[133]

Most audience members were baffled by the play.[134][135][136][137][138][139][140] Theatregoers would leave after the first act, describing it as a play where "nothing happens", and taxi drivers would wait in front of the theatre to take them home.[141][142] The Miami showing caused the cancellation of the showings in New York.

By April 1956, new showings were planned. That month, Schneider and most of the cast were replaced. Herbert Berghof took over as director and E. G. Marshall replaced Tom Ewell as Vladimir.[143] The play had its Broadway premiere at the John Golden Theatre on 19 April 1956, with Bert Lahr as Estragon, E. G. Marshall as Vladimir, Alvin Epstein as Lucky, and Kurt Kasznar as Pozzo.[144] The New York showing of the play prompted discussions of the play being an allegory. One reviewer, Henry Hewes of the Saturday Review, identified Godot as God, Pozzo as a capitalist-aristocrat, and Lucky as labour-proletarian.[143] This prompted Beckett to issue a rare statement, stating that the reaction was based on a misconception of the play. To Beckett, the play tries not to be able to be defined.[145] The New York showing of the play was well-received with critics. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times praised Lahr for his performance as Estragon.[146] The production was recorded as a two-record album by Columbia Masterworks Records.[147]

In 1957, four years after its world premiere, Waiting for Godot was staged for one night only at the San Quentin State Prison in California. Herbert Blau with the San Francisco Actor's Workshop directed the production. Some 1,400 inmates encountered the performance.[148] Beckett later gave Rick Cluchey, a former prisoner from San Quentin, financial and moral support over a period of many years.[117] Cluchey played Vladimir in two productions in the former Gallows room of the San Quentin California State Prison, which had been converted into a 65-seat theatre and, like the German prisoner before him, went on to work on a variety of Beckett's plays after his release. Cluchey said, "The thing that everyone in San Quentin understood about Beckett, while the rest of the world had trouble catching up, was what it meant to be in the face of it."[149] The attitude of this troupe was to move it away from a commercial attitude to an avant garde attitude.[150] As well, the play did not have competition between the actors playing Vladimir and Estragon for being the star of the show.[151] The most successful showing was in November 1957 at the San Quentin prison, where the play had a profound impact on the inmates and spurred them to start a drama group in the prison. They would go on to produce seven of Beckett's works.[152] In 1958, the play, produced by the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, would be chosen to go to Brussels for the 1958 World's Fair.[153]

The first Broadway revival was produced in 1957 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, directed by Herbert Berghof, but only ran for six performances (January 21–26).[154] The cast included Earle Hyman as Vladimir, Rex Ingram as Estragon, Mantan Moreland as Pozzo and Geoffrey Holder as Lucky.

Also in May 1957, a production directed by Walter Biakel was staged at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago with Harvey Korman as Vladimir, Louis Zorich as Estragon, Moultrie Patten as Pozzo and Mike Nichols as Lucky.[155]

In 1965, a production at the Olney Theatre in Olney, Maryland starred Dana Elcar as "Vladimir" and Stefan Gierasch as "Estragon" as part of A Festival of the Absurd.

In the Australian premiere at the Arrow Theatre in Melbourne in 1957, Barry Humphries played Estragon opposite Peter O'Shaughnessy's Vladimir.[156]

Waiting for Godot was first performed at the Stratford Festival in 1968 at the Avon Theatre in a production directed by William Hutt, with Powys Thomas as Vladimir, Eric Donkin as Estragon, James Blendick as Pozzo, Adrian Pecknold as Lucky and Douglas Birkenshaw as The Boy.[157]

The very first South African production was performed in 1955 at the Little Theatre in Cape Town, produced by Leonard Schach, with Gavin Haughton as Vladimir, Alec Bell as Estragon, Donald Inskip as Lucky, Gordon Roberts as Pazzo and Frank Rothgiesser as The Boy.[158] The play was also presented at the Hofmeyr Theatre and then taken on a tour of several country towns in South Africa.

After a few amateur productions in the 1950s, the first professional staging of the play in Brazil happened in 1969, directed by Flávio Rangel and staged by actress Cacilda Becker as Estragon and her real-life husband, actor Walmor Chagas as Vladimir. After few performances, on May 6, 1969, Becker had a stroke and collapsed during the intermission. She was immediately taken to a hospital, still wearing the play's costume, and remained in a coma for 38 days until her passing on June 14.[159]

Set of Theatre Royal Haymarket 2009 production

In 1977, PBS broadcast an adaptation for television directed by Charles S. Dubin and performed by the Los Angeles Actors' Theatre, with Dana Elcar as Vladimir, Donald Moffat as Estragon, Ralph Waite as Pozzo and Bruce French as Lucky.[160]

On 4 September 1977, as part of the British television series Drama, the Open University filmed a production of Godot directed by Richard Callanan with Leo McKern as Estragon, Max Wall as Vladimir, Graham Crowden as Pozzo, Basil Clarke as Lucky and Toby Page as The Boy.[161]

In 1978, a production was staged by Walter Asmus at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City with Sam Waterston as Vladimir, Austin Pendleton as Estragon, Milo O'Shea as Lucky and Michael Egan as Pozzo.[162]

A young Geoffrey Rush played Vladimir opposite his then flatmate Mel Gibson as Estragon in 1979 at the Jane Street Theatre in Sydney.

In 1980, Braham Murray directed a production at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester with Max Wall as Vladimir, Trevor Peacock as Estragon and Wolfe Morris as Pozzo.[163]

Also in 1980, a production was performed at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, directed by Donald Howarth, with John Kani ("Vladimir"), Winston Ntshona ("Estragon"), Pieter-Dirk Uys ("Pozzo"), Peter Piccolo ("Lucky") and Silamour Philander ("The Boy").[158] The multiracial cast, approved by Beckett himself, caused quite a stir, but the play received good reviews. After the Cape Town run, the play was also performed at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, the Port Elizabeth Opera House, and the Market Theatre, Johannesburg (where it ran for three weeks). In 1981, the production went on an international tour to the US and Britain, with Bill Flynn replacing Uys as "Pozzo". The tour included New Haven, Connecticut, The Old Vic Theatre in London and the Oxford Playhouse in Oxford. It was also invited to participate in the First International Baltimore Theatre Festival but on arrival the play was picketed by anti-Apartheid demonstrators who claimed that it and the Baxter Theatre were "part and parcel of the South African propaganda machine to misrepresent what was taking place in the country", so the performances were canceled.

The 1984 Stratford Festival production of Waiting for Godot, directed by Leon Rubin, was performed at the Tom Patterson Theatre, with Brian Bedford as Vladimir, Edward Abenza as Estragon, Andreas Katsulas as Pozzo, Paul Zimet as Lucky and Adam Poynter as The Boy.[164]

The Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center was the site of a 1988 revival directed by Mike Nichols, featuring Robin Williams (Estragon), Steve Martin (Vladimir), Bill Irwin (Lucky), F. Murray Abraham (Pozzo), and Lukas Haas (boy). With a limited run of seven weeks and an all-star cast, it was financially successful,[165] but the critical reception was not particularly favourable, with Frank Rich of The New York Times writing, "Audiences will still be waiting for a transcendent Godot long after the clowns at Lincoln Center, like so many others passing through Beckett's eternal universe before them, have come and gone."[166]

The play was revived in London's West End at the Queen's Theatre in a production directed by Les Blair, which opened on 30 September 1991. Rik Mayall played Vladimir and Adrian Edmondson played Estragon, with Philip Jackson as Pozzo and Christopher Ryan as Lucky; the boy was played by Dean Gaffney and Duncan Thornley. Derek Jarman provided the scenic design, in collaboration with Madeleine Morris.[167]

In 1992, in what would be his last stage appearance, Dana Elcar reprised his 1965 stage role and 1977 TV movie role of Vladimir in a 1992 Los Angeles production at the Santa Paula Theatre Center directed by Deborah LaVine.[168]

On 3 September 1994, a rare French-language recording of the play, recorded at the Theatre de Babylone shortly after the 1953 Paris premiere with the original cast and director (see "1950's to 1969" above) was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.[169] The following day, 4 September 1994, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a production in English with Alan Howard as Vladimir, Michael Maloney as Estragon, Stratford Jones as Pozzo, Simon Russell Beale as Lucky, Tristan Moriarty as The Boy and Geraldine McEwan as The Narrator;[170] this production was rebroadcast on BBC Radio 3 30 June 1995 and 5 September 1999.

In 1996, the Stratford Festival staged a production directed by Brian Bedford, with Stephen Ouimette as Estragon, Tom McCamus as Vladimir, James Blendick as Pozzo, Tim MacDonald as Lucky and Joe Dinicol as The Boy.[171] The cast reunited in March 1997 to perform the play on CBC Radio's "Bank of Montreal Stratford Festival Series" and again at the Stratford Festival for the 1998 season at the Tom Patterson Theatre (with Philip Psutka replacing Dinicol as The Boy), again directed by Bedford.[172]

In June 1999, the Royal Exchange, Manchester staged a production directed by Matthew Lloyd with Richard Wilson as Vladimir, Brian Pettifer as Estragon and Nicky Henson as Pozzo.[173]

Neil Armfield directed a controversial production in January 2003 with Max Cullen as Estragon, John Gaden as Vladimir, Boddan Koca as Pozzo and Steve Le Marquand as Lucky at Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre.[174] A representative of Beckett's estate was present at opening night and had believed a contract for the play had stated that no music was to be used in the production.[175]

On 16 April 2006, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a production directed by John Tydeman, with Sean Barrett as Vladimir, David Burke as Estragon, Nigel Anthony as Lucky and The Narrator, Terence Rigby as Pozzo and Zachary Fox as The Boy.[176]

On 2 and 3 November 2007, two performances were staged in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, two years after the neighborhood had been devastated by the failure of the federal levee system caused by Hurricane Katrina. This was followed by two performances in the similarly damaged neighborhood Gentilly on 9 and 10 November. The production was staged by American artist Paul Chan, the NYC-based arts organization Creative Time, and the Classical Theatre of Harlem. It featured New Orleans native Wendell Pierce as Vladimir and J. Kyle Manzay as Estragon.[177][178]

On 30 April 2009, a production directed by Sean Mathias, with Sir Ian McKellen as Estragon and Sir Patrick Stewart as Vladimir, opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London's West End. Their performances received critical acclaim, and were the subject of an eight-part documentary series called Theatreland, which was produced by Sky Arts. The production was revived at the same theatre in January 2010 for 11 weeks and in 2010 toured internationally with Roger Rees replacing Stewart as Vladimir.[179] This production toured to Adelaide, South Australia, in June 2010, playing at Her Majesty's.[180][181]

A 2009 Broadway revival of the play starring Nathan Lane as Estragon, John Goodman as Pozzo, John Glover as Lucky and Bill Irwin as Vladimir was nominated for three Tony Awards: Best Revival of a Play, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (John Glover), and Best Costume Design of a Play (Jane Greenwood).[182][183]

For the Stratford Festival's 61st season in 2013, Jennifer Tarver directed a new production at the Tom Patterson Theatre starring Brian Dennehy as Pozzo, Stephen Ouimette as Estragon, Tom Rooney as Vladimir and Randy Hughson as Lucky.[184]

A new production directed by Sean Mathias with Ian McKellen as Estragon, Patrick Stewart as Vladimir, Billy Crudup as Lucky and Shuler Hensley as Pozzo began previews at the Cort Theatre on Broadway on October 26, 2013, and ran from November 24, 2013, to March 30, 2014.[2][185][186][187]

The Sydney Theatre Company staged Godot in November 2013 with Richard Roxburgh as Estragon, Hugo Weaving as Vladimir, and Philip Quast as Pozzo, directed by Andrew Upton.[156]

In November 2018, the Druid Theater Company staged Godot at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College in Manhattan starring Garrett Lombard, Aaron Monaghan, Marty Rea and Rory Nolan and directed by Garry Hynes.[188]

In October 2020, a production of Godot was performed at the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, South Africa, "the first physical event [before a live audience] since the start of South Africa's nationwide [COVID-19] lockdown earlier [that] year."[189] Directed by Phala Ookeditse Phala, the cast included Tony Bonani Miyambo as Estragon, Billy Langa as Vladimir, Jemma Kahn as Lucky and The Boy and Stefania Du Toit as Pozzo.

In May 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, a production, directed by Scott Elliot with Ethan Hawke as Vladimir, John Leguizamo as Estragon, Wallace Shawn as Lucky and Tariq Trotter as Pozzo, was performed online in the style of a Zoom teleconference call with each actor performing on camera from their respective locations.[190] The production was presented by The New Group and broadcast by the Off Stage Broadway production company for rental or full-access pass.