View source for Waiting for Godot

{{short description|Play by Samuel Beckett}}
{{use British English|date=May 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox play
| name       = Waiting for Godot
| image      = En attendant Godot, Festival d'Avignon, 1978.jpeg
| caption    = Scene from the 1978 production directed by [[Otomar Krejča]] for the [[Festival d'Avignon]] 
| writer     = [[Samuel Beckett]]
| characters =[[Vladimir (Waiting for Godot)|Vladimir]]<br />[[Estragon]]<br />[[Pozzo (Waiting for Godot)|Pozzo]]<br />[[Lucky (Waiting for Godot)|Lucky]]<br /> A boy
| mute       = Godot
| premiere   = {{Start date and age|1953|01|05|df=yes}}
| place      = {{interlanguage link|Théâtre de Babylone|fr}}, Paris
| orig_lang  = French
| genre      = [[Tragicomedy]] (play)
}}
'''''Waiting for Godot''''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|ɒ|d|oʊ|audio=en-us-Godot2.oga}} {{respell|GOD|oh}} or {{IPAc-en|ɡ|ə|ˈ|d|oʊ|audio=en-us-Godot.oga}} {{respell|gə|DOH}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Piepenburg |first=Erik |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/anthony-page-of-waiting-for-godot-teaches-us-how-to-pronounce-its-title/ |title=Anthony Page of ''Waiting for Godot'' Teaches Us How to Pronounce Its Title |date=30 April 2009 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=26 March 2024 |quote=Well GOD-dough is what Samuel Beckett said. Also, the word has to echo Pozzo. That's the right pronunciation. Go-DOUGH is an Americanism, which isn’t what the play intended. |archive-date=19 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119164731/http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/anthony-page-of-waiting-for-godot-teaches-us-how-to-pronounce-its-title/ |url-status=live }}</ref>) is a [[tragicomedy]] play by Irish playwright and writer [[Samuel Beckett]], first published in 1952 by [[Les Éditions de Minuit]]. It is Beckett's reworking of his own original French-language play titled '''''{{Lang|fr|En attendant Godot}}''''', and is subtitled in English as "'''A tragicomedy in two acts.'''" The play revolves around the mannerisms of the two main characters, [[Vladimir (Waiting for Godot)|Vladimir]] (Didi) and [[Estragon]] (Gogo), who engage in a variety of thoughts, dialogues and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives.<ref name="NYT-20131112">{{cite news|last=Itzkoff|first=Dave|author-link=Dave Itzkoff|title=The Only Certainty Is That He Won't Show Up|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/theater/the-right-way-to-say-godot.html|date=12 November 2013|work=The New York Times|access-date=12 November 2013|archive-date=30 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730062053/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/theater/the-right-way-to-say-godot.html|url-status=live}}</ref> It is Beckett's best-known literary work and is regarded by critics as "one of the most enigmatic plays of [[Literary modernism|modern literature]]".<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26468121|title=False Innocence in ''Waiting for Godot''|first1=Eric |last1=P. Levy|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|journal=Journal of Beckett Studies|pages=19–36|date=April 1994 |location=Scotland|volume=3|issue=2 |doi=10.3366/jobs.1994.3.2.3 |jstor=26468121 |issn=0309-5207}}</ref>{{sfn|Ackerley|Gontarski|2006|page=620}} In a poll conducted by London's [[Royal National Theatre]] in the year 1998, ''Waiting for Godot'' was voted as "the most significant English-language play of the [[Twentieth-century theatre|20th century]]."{{sfn|Berlin|1999}}<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/waiting-for-godot-voted-best-modern-play-in-english-1178953.html "''Waiting for Godot'' voted best modern play in English"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005201909/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/waiting-for-godot-voted-best-modern-play-in-english-1178953.html |date=5 October 2017 }} by David Lister, ''[[The Independent]]'', 18 October 1998</ref><ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[New Theatre Quarterly]]|title=NT 2000: the Need to Make Meaning|first=Aleks|last=Sierz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATmWcLXdJKsC&pg=PA192|volume=16|issue=2|pages=192–193|editor-first1=Clive|editor-last1=Barker|editor-first2=Simon|editor-last2=Trussler|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=May 2000|doi=10.1017/S0266464X00013713|isbn=9780521789028|s2cid=191153800|access-date=27 May 2020|archive-date=21 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013118/https://books.google.com/books?id=ATmWcLXdJKsC&pg=PA192#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The original French text was composed between 9 October 1948 and 29 January 1949.{{sfn|Ackerley|Gontarski|2006|p=172}} The [[premiere]], directed by [[Roger Blin]], was performed at the {{interlanguage link|Théâtre de Babylone|fr}}, Paris, in January 1953. The English-language version of the play premiered in London in 1955. Though there is only one scene throughout both acts, the play is known for its numerous themes, including those relating to religious, philosophical, classical, social, psychoanalytical, and biographical settings. Beckett later stated that the painting ''[[Two Men Contemplating the Moon]]'' (1819), by [[Caspar David Friedrich]], was a major inspiration for the play.

In ''Waiting for Godot'', the two main characters spend their days waiting for someone named Godot, who they believe will provide them with salvation. They pass the time with conversations, physical routines, and philosophical musings, but their hope fades as Godot never arrives. They encounter two other characters, Pozzo and his servant Lucky. As the play unfolds, the repetition of actions and dialogue suggests the cyclical nature of their lives, and though Godot is promised for "tomorrow," he never appears in the play, leaving the characters in a state of existential uncertainty. Critics have noted that since the play is stripped down to its bare basics, it invites a wide array of social, political and religious interpretations. There are also several references to wartime contexts, and some commentators have stated that Beckett might have been influenced by his own status as the play was written after World War II, during which he and his partner were both forced to leave occupied Paris, due to their affiliation to the [[French Resistance]]. Dramatist [[Martin Esslin]] said that ''Waiting for Godot'' was part of a broader literary movement known as the [[Theatre of the Absurd]], which was first proposed by [[Albert Camus]].

The play has received widespread acclaim. Due to its popularity, significance, and cultural importance to modern literature, ''Waiting for Godot'' has often been adapted for stage, operas, musicals, television, and theatrical performances across most of [[Europe]] and the [[Americas]]. As one of the foundational works of theater, the play remains widely studied in academic and literary circles.

[[File:En attendant Godot, Festival d'Avignon, 1978 f22.jpg|thumb|Rufus as Estragon and Georges Wilson as Vladimir in the 1978 adaptation of the play]]

==Plot==
===Act I ===
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 traveller named [[Pozzo (Waiting for Godot)|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.<ref>Lucky's speech, in a cryptic manner, seems to reference the underlying [[absurdism|absurdist]] themes of the play: Atkins, Anselm. "Lucky's Speech in Beckett's Waiting for Godot: A Punctuated Sense-Line Arrangement". ''The Educational Theater Journal''. Vol. 19, No. 4. December 1967. Publisher: Johns Hopkins University. p. 426.</ref> Pozzo and Lucky 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.

===Act II===
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 travellers. Lucky and Pozzo exit shortly after their spirited encounter, leaving Vladimir and Estragon to go on waiting.

Soon after, the boy reappears to again report that Godot will not be coming tonight, but surely tomorrow. 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.

==Characters==
Beckett refrained from elaborating on the characters beyond what he had written in the play. He once recalled that when Sir [[Ralph Richardson]] "wanted the low-down on Pozzo, his home address and [[Résumé|curriculum vitae]], and seemed to make the forthcoming of this and similar information the condition of his condescending to illustrate the part of Vladimir ... I told him that all I knew about Pozzo was in the text, that if I had known more I would have put it in the text, and that was true also of the other characters."<ref>SB to [[Barney Rosset]], 18 October 1954 (Syracuse). Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 412</ref>

===Vladimir and Estragon===
{{Main|Vladimir (Waiting for Godot)|l1=Vladimir|Estragon}}
[[File:Waiting for Godot in Doon School.jpg|thumb|Vladimir and Estragon ([[The Doon School]], India, 2010)|222x222px]]
When Beckett started writing he did not have a visual image of Vladimir and Estragon. They are never referred to as [[Vagrancy|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 [[Bowler hat|bowlers]].{{'"}}<ref>Quoted in ''[[Le Nouvel Observateur]]'' (26 September 1981) and referenced in Cohn, R., ''From Desire to Godot'' (London: Calder Publications; New York: Riverrun Press), 1998, p. 150</ref> "The bowler hat was of course ''de rigueur'' for men in many social contexts when Beckett was growing up in [[Foxrock]], and [his father] William Beckett commonly wore one."{{sfn|Cronin|1997|p=382}} 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''.<ref>Mast, Gerald, ''The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies''. University Of Chicago Press; Second Edition (15 September 1979). {{ISBN|978-0226509785}}</ref> Their "blather", which includes [[Hiberno-English]] idioms, indicated that they are both [[Irish people|Irish]].{{sfn|Gontarski|2014|p=203}}

Vladimir stands through most of the play whereas Estragon sits down numerous times and even dozes off. "Estragon is inert and Vladimir restless."<ref name="Alan Schneider 1998 p. 6">Letter to Alan Schneider, 27 December 1955 in Harmon, M., (Ed.) ''No Author Better Served: The Correspondence of Samuel Beckett and Alan Schneider'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), p. 6</ref> Vladimir looks at the sky and muses on religious or philosophical matters. Estragon "belongs to the stone",<ref>Kalb, J., ''[http://samuel-beckett.net/Penelope/staging.html Beckett in Performance] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608131244/http://samuel-beckett.net/Penelope/staging.html |date=8 June 2011 }}'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 43</ref> 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 [[Happy Days (play)#Winnie|Winnie]] in ''[[Happy Days (play)|Happy Days]]'', another of Beckett's plays, both actions representing the slow, deliberate erosion of the characters' lives.{{Original research inline|date=February 2021}} He finds it hard to remember but can recall certain things when prompted, ''e.g.'', when Vladimir asks: "Do you remember the [[Gospel#Canonical gospels|Gospels]]?"{{sfn|Beckett|1988|page=12}} 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|Alzheimer's disease]].<ref>See Brown, V., ''[http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/888/thesis.pdf Yesterday's Deformities: A Discussion of the Role of Memory and Discourse in the Plays of Samuel Beckett] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012033313/http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/888/thesis.pdf |date=12 October 2014 }}'', pp. 35–75 for a detailed discussion of this.</ref> [[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."<ref>Alvarez, A. ''Beckett'' 2nd Edition (London: Fontana Press, 1992)</ref> 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.{{Original research inline|date=February 2021}} 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."<ref name="themodernword.com">Gurnow, M., ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20141007231614/http://themodernword.com/beckett/paper_gurnow.html No Symbol Where None Intended: A Study of Symbolism and Allusion in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot]''</ref> These characterizations, for some, represented the act of thinking or mental state (Vladimir) and physical things or the body (Estragon).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Beckett and Joyce: Friendship and Fiction|last=Gluck|first=Barbara|publisher=Bucknell University Press|year=1979|isbn=9780838720608|location=London|pages=152}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Samuel Beckett's Theatre in America: The Legacy of Alan Schneider as Beckett's American Director|last=Bianchini|first=Natka|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2015|isbn=9781349683956|location=New York|pages=29}}</ref>

The above characterizations, particularly that which concerns their existential situation, are also demonstrated in one of the play's recurring themes, which is sleep.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Visible and the Invisible in the Interplay between Philosophy, Literature and Reality|last=Tymieniecka|first=Anna-Teresa|author-link=Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|year=2012|isbn=9789401038812|location=Dordrecht|pages=89}}</ref> 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 a dream-like landscape, or, a form of [[Purgatory]], from which neither man can escape.{{Original research inline|date=February 2021}} 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.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre and Literature of the Absurd|last=Bennett|first=Michael Y.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2015|isbn=9781107053922|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=51}}</ref> This particular aspect involving sleep is indicative of what some called a pattern of duality in the play.<ref>{{Cite book|title=University of Basrah Studies in English|last1=Al-Hajaj|first1=Jinan Fedhil|last2=Davis|first2=Graeme|publisher=Peter Lang|year=2008|isbn=9783039113255|location=Oxford|pages=141}}</ref> In the case of the protagonists, the duality involves the body and the mind, making the characters complementary.<ref name=":2" />

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"<ref>Fletcher, J., "The Arrival of Godot" in ''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 64, No. 1 (Jan. 1969), pp. 34–38</ref> 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".<ref>Duckworth, C., (Ed.) "Introduction" to ''En attendant Godot'' (London: George Harrap, 1966), pp. lxiii, lxiv. Quoted in {{harvnb|Ackerley|Gontarski|2006|p=183}}</ref>

[[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."<ref>[[Vivian Mercier|Mercier, V.]], "The Uneventful Event" in ''[[The Irish Times]]'', 18 February 1956</ref> 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."<ref>[[Vivian Mercier|Mercier, V.]], ''Beckett/Beckett'' (London: Souvenir Press, 1990), p. 46</ref> 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 [[begging|begs]] for chicken bones or money."<ref>[[Vivian Mercier|Mercier, V.]], ''Beckett/Beckett'' (London: Souvenir Press, 1990), pp. 47, 49</ref>

===Pozzo and Lucky===
Pozzo and Lucky have been together for 60 years.{{sfn|Beckett|1988|page=21}} 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 (Waiting for Godot)|Pozzo]] and Lucky are simply Didi and Gogo writ large", unbalanced as their relationship is.<ref>Friedman, N., "Godot and Gestalt: The Meaning of Meaningless" in ''The American Journal of Psychoanalysis'' 49(3) p. 277</ref> 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 {{em|for}} Pozzo. As such, since the first appearance of the duo, the true [[Slavery|slave]] had always been Pozzo."<ref name="themodernword.com" /> 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. From Beckett's own life experiences in Ireland and wartime France, commentators such as [[Hugh Kenner]] have identified Pozzo as representing German behaviour in occupied France, or alternatively as a bullying and conceited [[Protestant Ascendancy]] landlord.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beidler |first1=Philip D. |author1-link=Philip Beidler |title=The great beyond: art in the age of annihilation |date=2022 |publisher=The University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa |isbn=9780817321260 |pages=112–113}}</ref> When translating his original French dialogue into English, Beckett took pains to introduce Irish idiom (specifically, Dubliners' idiom): Pozzo's [[tobacco pipe|pipe]] is made by [[Peterson Pipes|Kapp and Peterson]], Dublin's best-known tobacconists (which he refers to as a "[[Erica arborea#Uses|briar]]" but which Estragon calls by the dialect word ''dudeen''). Not only is his [[Hiberno-English]] text more colourful than the French original, but it emphasizes the differences in the characters' social standing.{{sfn|Bradby|2001|p=40}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roche |first1=Anthony |editor1-last=Gontarski |editor1-first=S. E. |editor1-link=S. E. Gontarski |title=The Edinburgh companion to Samuel Beckett and the arts |date=2014 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0-7486-7568-5 |page=203 |chapter=The 'Irish' translation of Beckett's ''Godot''}}</ref> Pozzo 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."<ref>Kalb, J., ''Beckett in Performance'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 175</ref> Beckett's advice to the American director [[Alan Schneider]] was: "[Pozzo] is a [[hypomania]]c and the only way to play him is to play him mad."<ref name="Alan Schneider 1998 p. 6" />

"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".<ref>Barney Rosset to Deirdre Bair, 29 March 1974. Referenced in {{harvnb|Bair|1990|p=464}}</ref>

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.''<ref>[[Vivian Mercier|Mercier, V.]], ''Beckett/Beckett'' (London: Souvenir Press, 1990), p. 53</ref> 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, [[Theatre of the Absurd#Etymology|"The Theatre of the Absurd"]].{{sfn|Esslin|1960}} Esslin suggests that this seemingly involuntary, philosophical spouting is an example of the actor's working "against the dialogue rather than with it",{{sfn|Esslin|1960}} 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".{{sfn|Esslin|1960}}

[[Jean Martin]], who originated the role of [[Lucky (Waiting for Godot)|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 [[Physiology|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.<ref>[[Jean Martin]] on the world première of ''En attendant Godot'' in Knowlson, James and Elizabeth, (Eds.) ''Beckett Remembering – Remembering Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 2006), p. 117</ref> Beckett and the director may not have been completely convinced, but they expressed no objections.<ref>Wilmer S. E., (Ed.) Beckett in Dublin (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 1992), p. 28</ref> 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.<ref>[[Jean Martin]] to [[Deirdre Bair]], 12 May 1976. Quoted in {{harvnb|Bair|1990|p=449}}</ref>

When Beckett was asked why Lucky was so named, he replied, "I suppose he is lucky to have no more expectations..."<ref>Duckworth, C., ''The Making of Godot'', p. 95. Quoted in {{harvnb|Bair|1990|p=407}}</ref>

===The Boy===
[[File:Waiting for Godot University of Chicago II.jpg|alt=Estragon and the boy in dialogue|thumb|222x222px|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."{{sfn|Beckett|1988|p=91}} 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 claiming to have arrived 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 claim to 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.

===Godot===
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.{{'"}}<ref>Colin Duckworth's introduction to ''En attendant Godot'' (London: George G Harrap & Co, 1966), lx. Quoted in Cohn, R., ''From Desire to Godot'' (London: Calder Publications; New York: Riverrun Press, 1998), p. 150</ref>

[[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: "''[[wikt:godillot|godillot]]'', ''[[wikt:godasse|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.{{sfn|Bair|1990|p=405}}

"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."<ref>Interview with [[Peter Woodthorpe]], 18 February 1994. Referenced in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 785 n. 166</ref> "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."<ref>SB to Barney Rosset, 18 October 1954 (Syracuse). Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 412</ref> 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."{{sfn|Bair|1990|p=591}} (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."<ref>[[Vivian Mercier|Mercier, V.]], ''Beckett/Beckett'' (London: Souvenir Press, 1990), p. 87</ref> While Beckett stated he originally had no knowledge of [[Honoré de Balzac|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]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal|first1=Katherine|last1=Waugh|first2=Fergus|last2=Daly|date=1995|title=''Film'' by Samuel Beckett|url=http://iol.ie/~galfilm/filmwest/20beckett.htm|journal=Film West|volume=20|access-date=9 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226142235/http://iol.ie/~galfilm/filmwest/20beckett.htm|archive-date=26 February 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> a minor adaptation of ''Mercadet'' featuring [[Buster Keaton]], whose works Beckett had admired,<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Alan W.|last=Friedman|date=2009|title=Samuel Beckett Meets Buster Keaton: Godeau, Film, and New York|journal=Texas Studies in Literature and Language|volume=51|issue=1|pages=41–46|jstor=40755528|doi=10.1353/tsl.0.0023|s2cid=161370974}}</ref> and whom he later sought out for ''[[Film (film)|Film]]''.

Unlike elsewhere in Beckett's work, no bicycle appears in this play, but [[Hugh Kenner]] in his essay "The Cartesian Centaur"<ref>Kenner, H., ''The Cartesian Centaur'', (Perspective, 1959)</ref> 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 {{Interlanguage link|Roger Godeau|fr}} (1920–2000; a professional cyclist from 1943 to 1961), outside the velodrome in [[Roubaix]].<ref>Croggon, Alison. [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/enter-all-those-wary-of-samuel-beckett/story-e6frg8n6-1225864745353 "Enter all those wary of Samuel Beckett"]. ''[[The Australian]]''. 11 May 2010</ref><ref>Clements, Toby. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3621242/Cyclists-as-postmen-with-raggle-taggle-dreams.html "Cyclists as postmen with raggle-taggle dreams"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521014304/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3621242/Cyclists-as-postmen-with-raggle-taggle-dreams.html |date=21 May 2024 }}. ''The Telegraph''. 26 July 2004.</ref>

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".{{sfn|Ackerley|Gontarski|2006|p={{page needed|date=September 2020}}}}

The name "Godot" is pronounced in Britain and Ireland with the emphasis on the first syllable, {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|ɒ|d|oʊ}} {{respell|GOD|oh}};<ref name="NYT-20131112" /> in North America it is usually pronounced with an emphasis on the second syllable, {{IPAc-en|ɡ|ə|ˈ|d|oʊ}} {{respell|gə|DOH|'}}. Beckett himself said the emphasis should be on the first syllable, and that the North American pronunciation is a mistake.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thecampuschronicle.com/archive/vol_4/05_07/ |title=Savannah College of Art and Design: The Chronicle |date=27 March 2008 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080327012846/http://www.thecampuschronicle.com/archive/vol_4/05_07/ |archive-date=27 March 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[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.<ref name="NYT-20131112" /> The 1956 [[Broadway theatre|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).<ref>[[Terry Teachout|Teachout, Terry.]] [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704243904575630592465424692 "The Cowardly Lion Waits for Godot".]''The Wall Street Journal''. 26 November 2010.{{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521014306/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704243904575630592465424692 |date=21 May 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{YouTube|1ZrTh-78K2o|Becket, Samuel. ''Waiting for Godot''. audio recording. Examples located 16:05–16:15}}</ref>

==Setting==
There is only one scene throughout both acts. Two men are waiting on a country road by a tree. The men are of unspecified origin, though it is clear that they are not English by nationality since they refer to currency as [[franc]]s, and tell derisive jokes about the English – and in English-language productions the pair are traditionally played with [[Hiberno-English|Irish accents]]. The script calls for Estragon to sit on a low mound but in practice – as in Beckett's own 1975 German production – this is usually a stone.&nbsp; In the first act the tree is bare. In the second, a few leaves have appeared despite the script specifying that it is the next day. The minimal description calls to mind "the idea of the ''lieu vague'', a location which should not be particularised".<ref name="Cronin, A. 1997 p. 60">{{harvnb|Cronin|1997|p=60}}</ref>

Other clues about the location can be found in the dialogue. In Act I, Vladimir turns toward the auditorium and describes it as a bog. In Act II, Vladimir again motions to the auditorium and notes that there is "Not a soul in sight." When Estragon rushes toward the back of the stage in Act II, Vladimir scolds him, saying that "There's no way out there." Also in Act II, Vladimir comments that their surroundings look nothing like the Macon country, and Estragon states that he's lived his whole life "Here! In the Cackon country!"

[[Alan Schneider]] once suggested putting the play on in the round – Pozzo has been described as a [[Ringmaster (circus)|ringmaster]]<ref>Hampton, W., [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/04/theater/theater-review-celebrating-with-waiting-for-godot.html Theater Review: "Celebrating With ''Waiting for Godot''"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614123152/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/04/theater/theater-review-celebrating-with-waiting-for-godot.html |date=14 June 2020 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', 4 Oct 1995</ref> – but Beckett dissuaded him: "I don't in my ignorance agree with the round and feel ''Godot'' needs a very closed box." He even contemplated at one point having a "faint shadow of bars on stage floor" but, in the end, decided against this level of what he called "explicitation".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/people/academic/barrydrliz/berlinlecture/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081212010700/http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/people/academic/barrydrliz/berlinlecture/|archive-date=12 December 2008|title=Beckett in Berlin|first=Elizabeth|last=Barry|publisher=[[University of Warwick]]|url-status=dead}}</ref> In Beckett's 1975 [[Schiller Theater]] production in Berlin, there are times when Didi and Gogo appear to bounce off something "like birds trapped in the strands of [an invisible] net", in James Knowlson's description.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodall |first1=Jane R. |author1-link=Jane R. Goodall |title=Stage presence |date=2008 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon England |isbn=978-0-415-39594-6 |page=175}}</ref>

==Interpretations==
"Because the play is so stripped down, so elemental, it invites all kinds of social and political and religious interpretation", wrote Normand Berlin in a tribute to the play in autumn 1999, "with Beckett himself placed in different schools of thought, different movements and 'isms'. The attempts to pin him down have not been successful, but the desire to do so is natural when we encounter a writer whose minimalist art reaches for bedrock reality. 'Less' forces us to look for 'more', and the need to talk about ''Godot'' and about Beckett has resulted in a steady outpouring of books and articles."{{sfn|Berlin|1999}}<ref>Genest, G., "Memories of Samuel Beckett in the Rehearsals for ''Endgame'', 1967" in Ben-Zvi, L., (Ed.) ''Women in Beckett: Performance and Critical Perspectives'' (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992), p x</ref>

Throughout ''Waiting for Godot'', the audience may encounter [[religion|religious]], philosophical, [[classical antiquity|classical]], [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytical]] and biographical – especially [[French Resistance|wartime]] – references. There are [[ritual]]istic aspects and elements taken directly from [[vaudeville]],<ref>The game of changing hats is an echo of the [[Marx Brothers]]' film ''[[Duck Soup (1933 film)|Duck Soup]]'', which features almost exactly the same headgear-swapping action. See Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 609.</ref> and there is a danger in making more of these than what they are: that is, merely structural conveniences, avatars into which the writer places his fictional characters. The play "exploits several archetypal forms and situations, all of which lend themselves to both comedy and [[pathos]]."{{sfn|Cronin|1997|p=391}} Beckett makes this point emphatically clear in the opening notes to ''[[Film (film)|Film]]'': "No [[truth value]] attaches to the above, regarded as of merely structural and dramatic convenience."{{sfn|Beckett|2006|page=371}} He made another important remark to critic [[Lawrence E. Harvey]], saying that his "work does not depend on experience – [it is] not a record of experience. Of course you use it."<ref>An undated interview with Lawrence Harvey. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 371, 372.</ref>

Beckett tired quickly of "the endless misunderstanding." As far back as 1955, he remarked, "Why people have to complicate a thing so simple I can't make out."<ref>SB to [[Thomas MacGreevy]], 11 August 1955 (TCD). Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 416.</ref> He was not forthcoming with anything more than cryptic clues, however: "[[Peter Woodthorpe]] [who played Estragon] remembered asking him one day in a [[taxicab|taxi]] what the play was really about: 'It's all [[wikt:symbiosis|symbiosis]], Peter; it's symbiosis,' answered Beckett."<ref>Interview with Peter Woodthorpe, 18 February 1994. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 371, 372.</ref>

Beckett directed the play for the Schiller-Theater in Berlin in 1975. Although he had overseen many productions, this was the first time that he had taken complete control. [[Walter Asmus]] was his conscientious young assistant director. The production was not naturalistic. Beckett explained,

<blockquote>It is a game, everything is a game. When all four of them are lying on the ground, that cannot be handled naturalistically. That has got to be done artificially, balletically. Otherwise everything becomes an imitation, an imitation of reality [...]. It should become clear and transparent, not dry. It is a game in order to survive.<ref>Quoted in Asmus, W., 'Beckett directs ''Godot'' in ''Theatre Quarterly'', Vol V, No 19, 1975, pp. 23, 24. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 607.</ref></blockquote>

Over the years, Beckett clearly realised that the greater part of ''Godot'''s success came down to the fact that it was open to a variety of readings and that this was not necessarily a bad thing. Beckett himself sanctioned "one of the most famous [[multiracial|mixed-race]] productions of ''Godot'', performed at the [[Baxter Theatre Centre|Baxter Theatre]] in the [[University of Cape Town]], directed by [[Donald Howarth]], with [...] two black actors, [[John Kani]] and [[Winston Ntshona]], playing Didi and Gogo; Pozzo, dressed in checked shirt and gumboots reminiscent of an [[Afrikaner]] landlord, and Lucky ('a [[shanty town]] piece of [[white trash]]'<ref>[[Irving Wardle]], ''[[The Times]]'', 19 February 1981.</ref>) were played by two white actors, [[Bill Flynn]] and Peter Piccolo [...]. The Baxter production has often been portrayed as if it were an explicitly political production, when in fact it received very little emphasis. What such a reaction showed, however, was that, although the play can in no way be taken as a political [[allegory]], there are elements that are relevant to any local situation in which one man is being exploited or oppressed by another."<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 638, 639</ref>

=== Political ===
"It was seen as an [[allegory]] of the [[Cold War]]"<ref>[[Peter Hall (director)|Peter Hall]] in [http://samuel-beckett.net/Penelope/production_history.html ''The Guardian'', 4 January 2003] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518185502/http://www.samuel-beckett.net/Penelope/production_history.html |date=18 May 2007 }}</ref> 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 [[Great Britain|Britain]], where society has ever been blighted by a greedy [[ruling class|ruling élite]] keeping the working classes passive and ignorant by whatever means."<ref>Hassell, G., ''[http://www.picks.plus.com/howard/godotreview.htm What's On' London] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521014351/http://www.picks.plus.com/howard/godotreview.htm |date=21 May 2024 }}'', 2 – 9 July 1997.</ref>

The play was written shortly after the beginning of [[World War II]], during which [[Samuel Beckett#World War II and French Resistance|Beckett]] and his partner were forced to flee occupied Paris to avoid arrest, owing to their affiliation with the [[List of French Resistance museums and memorials|French Resistance.]] After the war, Beckett volunteered for the [[International Committee of the Red Cross|Red Cross]] in the French city [[Saint-Lô]], which had been almost completely destroyed during the [[D-Day (military term)|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.<ref>{{cite news |last=McNally |first=Frank |date=5 June 2019 |title=Down but not out in Saint-Lô: Frank McNally on Samuel Beckett and the Irish Red Cross in postwar France |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/down-but-not-out-in-saint-l%C3%B4-frank-mcnally-on-samuel-beckett-and-the-irish-red-cross-in-postwar-france-1.3915861 |newspaper=The Irish Times |location= |access-date=1 July 2022 |archive-date=12 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112070445/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/down-but-not-out-in-saint-l%C3%B4-frank-mcnally-on-samuel-beckett-and-the-irish-red-cross-in-postwar-france-1.3915861 |url-status=live }}</ref> Some academics have theorized that ''Godot'' is set during World War II, with Estragon and Vladimir being two Jews waiting for Godot to smuggle them out of occupied France.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hirsch |first=Oliver |date=2020 |title=Beckett's Waiting for Godot : a historical play with two Jews as main characters |url=https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/sites/default/files/pdf/142606.pdf |journal=Brno Studies in English |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=175–194 |doi=10.5817/bse2020-1-8 |issn=0524-6881|doi-access=free }}</ref>

=== Psychological ===
==== Freudian ====
"Bernard Dukore develops a triadic theory in ''Didi, Gogo and the absent Godot'', based on [[Sigmund Freud]]'s trinitarian description of the [[psyche (psychology)|psyche]] in ''[[The Ego and the Id]]'' (1923) and the usage of [[onomastics|onomastic]] techniques. Dukore defines the characters by what they lack: the rational Go-go embodies the incomplete ego, the missing [[pleasure principle (psychology)|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."<ref>Sion, I., "The Zero Soul: Godot's Waiting Selves In Dante's Waiting Rooms". ''Transverse'' No 2. Publisher: University of Toronto. November 2004, p. 70.</ref>

==== Jungian ====
"The [[analytical psychology#Archetypes|four archetypal personalities]] or the four aspects of the [[Psyche (psychology)#Jungian school|soul]] are grouped in two pairs: the [[analytical psychology#Complexes|ego]] and the [[analytical psychology#Shadow|shadow]], the [[Persona#In psychology|persona]] and the soul's image ([[Analytical psychology#Anima and animus|animus or anima]]). The shadow is the container of all our despised emotions [[psychological repression|repressed]] by the ego. Lucky, the shadow, serves as the polar opposite of the [[egocentrism|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" sounds similar to [[estrogen]], the female hormone (Carter, 130). This prompts us to identify him with the [[anima (Jung)|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."<ref>Sion, I., "The Shape of the Beckettian Self: Godot and the Jungian Mandala". ''Consciousness, Literature and the Arts'' Volume 7 Number 1, April 2006. See also Carter, S., 'Estragon's Ancient Wound: A Note on Waiting for Godot' in ''[[Journal of Beckett Studies]]'' 6.1, p. 130.</ref>

=== Philosophical ===

==== Existential ====
Broadly speaking, [[existentialism|existentialist]]s 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 life#Existentialism|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 [[absurdism|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.<ref>Ball, J. A. and McConachie, B. "Theatre Histories: An Introduction." (New York: Routledge, 2010.) P. 589.</ref>

==== Ethical ====
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.<ref>On the other hand, Didi only learns of this in asking the boy's brother how Godot treats him, which may in itself be seen as a show of compassion.</ref> 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.

=== Christian ===
Much of the play is steeped in scriptural allusion. The boy from Act I mentions that he and his brother mind Godot's [[The Sheep and the Goats|sheep and goats]]. Much can be read into Beckett's inclusion of the story of the two thieves from [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]] 23:39–43<ref>{{sourcetext|source=Bible|version=King James|book=Luke|chapter=23|verse=39|range=–43}}</ref> 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!"{{sfn|Beckett|1988|p=92}} could be taken as evidence 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 [[Healing the blind near Jericho|'The Blind Beggar']].{{Original research inline|date=February 2021}}

This reading is given further weight early in the first act when Estragon asks Vladimir what it is that he has requested from Godot:{{sfn|Beckett|2006|pp=10–11}}

:{{Dialogue|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]],{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=7}} the [[Gospel]]s,{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=9}} a [[Messiah|Saviour]],{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=11}} human beings made in [[Image of God|God's image]],{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=35}} the [[Christian cross|cross]],{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=117}} and [[Cain and Abel]].{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=163}}

According to biographer [[Anthony Cronin]], "[Beckett] always possessed a Bible, at the end more than one edition, and Bible [[concordance (publishing)|concordance]]s were always among the reference books on his shelves."{{sfn|Cronin|1997|p=21}} Beckett himself was quite open on the issue: "Christianity is a [[mythology]] with which I am perfectly familiar so I naturally use it."<ref>Duckworth, C., ''Angels of Darkness: Dramatic Effect in Samuel Beckett with Special Reference to Eugène Ionesco'' (London: Allen, 1972), p. 18. Quoted in Herren, G., "''[[Nacht und Träume]]'' as Beckett's Agony in the Garden" in ''[[Journal of Beckett Studies]]'', 11(1)</ref> As Cronin argues, these biblical references "may be [[irony|ironic]] or even [[sarcasm|sarcastic]]".{{sfn|Cronin|1997|pp=20, 21}}

"In answer to a [[Defense (legal)|defence counsel]] question in 1937 (during the [[As I Was Going Down Sackville Street#Libel lawsuit|libel action]] brought by his uncle against [[Oliver St. John Gogarty]]) as to whether he was a Christian, Jew or [[atheism|atheist]], Beckett replied, 'None of the three{{'"}}.<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 279. Referenced in Bryden, M., 'Beckett and Religion' in Oppenheim, L., (Ed.) ''Palgrave Advances in Samuel Beckett Studies'' (London: Palgrave, 2004), p. 157.</ref> 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, [[satire|satirised]], or ignored, but he, and his tortured son, are never definitively discarded."<ref>Bryden, M., ''Samuel Beckett and the Idea of God'' (Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, 1998), introduction.</ref>

=== Autobiographical ===
[[File:Friedrich - Two Men Contemplating the Moon.jpg|thumb|According to Beckett, [[Caspar David Friedrich]]'s painting ''[[Two Men Contemplating the Moon]]'' was an inspiration for the play]]
''Waiting for Godot'' has been described as a "metaphor for the long walk into [[Roussillon]], when Beckett and [[Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil|Suzanne]] slept in haystacks ... during the day and walked by night ... [or] of the relationship of Beckett to [[James Joyce|Joyce]]".{{sfn|Bair|1990|pages=409, 410, 405}} 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Knowlson|first=James|title=Damned to Fame. The Life of Samual Beckett|publisher=Bloomsbury|location=London|year=1996|pages=254, 378, 609}}</ref>

=== Sexual ===
Though the sexuality of Vladimir and Estragon is not always considered by critics,<ref>Sinfield, Alan. ''Out on Stage: Lesbian and Gay Theatre in the Twentieth Century''. Yale University Press (1999). {{ISBN|9780300081022}}</ref><ref>Green, Jesse. "Reviews: Pairing Up Waiting for Godot and No Man's Land". ''Vulture''. 23 November 2013.</ref> 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.<ref>Chandrika. B. ''The Private Garden: The Family in Post-war British Drama''. Academic Foundation (1993) {{ISBN|9788171880430}}. page 130</ref> 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.<ref>Boxall, P., "Beckett and Homoeroticism" in Oppenheim, L., (ed.) ''Palgrave Advances in Samuel Beckett Studies'' (London: Palgrave, 2004).</ref> 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."<ref>[[Israel Shenker|Shenker, Israel]]. "Moody Man of Letters; Portrait of Samuel Beckett, Author of the Puzzling ''Waiting for Godot''." ''The New York Times''. 6 May 1956.</ref>

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.<ref>Jeffers, Jennifer M. ''Beckett's Masculinity''. Springer (2016) {{ISBN|9780230101463}} p. 98</ref> 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, this being the play's lament, and the source of the play's humour and comedic tenderness.<ref>Katz, Allan. "''Waiting for Godot'' at the Charles Playhouse". ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]''. 28 November 1960.</ref> [[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.<ref>Mailer, Norman. ''Advertisements for Myself''. Harvard University Press (1959). {{ISBN|978-0674005907}}. p. 324</ref>

=== Beckett's objection to the casting of female actors ===
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 [[prostate]]s", said Beckett,<ref>Meeting with Linda Ben-Zvi, December 1987. Quoted in "Introduction" to Ben-Zvi, L., (ed.) ''Women in Beckett: Performance and Critical Perspectives'' (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992), p. x.</ref> 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|Jacoba Van Velde]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://theaterencyclopedie.nl/wiki/Wachten_op_Godot_-_Stichting_Toneelschuur_Producties_-_1988-04-12|title=''Wachten op Godot'' – Stichting Toneelschuur Producties – 1988-04-12|website=theaterencyclopedie.nl|language=nl|access-date=29 March 2018|archive-date=8 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180808140202/https://theaterencyclopedie.nl/wiki/Wachten_op_Godot_-_Stichting_Toneelschuur_Producties_-_1988-04-12|url-status=live}}</ref> 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."<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 610.</ref> 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 [[Festival d'Avignon|Avignon Festival]], although an objection by Beckett's representative had to be read before each performance.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/06/theater/judge-authorizes-all-female-godot.html|title=Judge Authorizes All-Female ''Godot''|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=6 July 1991|agency=[[Associated Press|AP]]|access-date=6 October 2021|archive-date=6 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006025007/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/06/theater/judge-authorizes-all-female-godot.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Similarly, an injunction was issued against a theatre in Pontedera, [[Tuscany]], by lawyers for [[Samuel Beckett]]'s estate who did not want female actors to play Vladimir and Estragon in the play, but in 2006 a court in Rome ruled that the women could play the roles.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/04/arts.italy|title= Beckett estate fails to stop women waiting for Godot|newspaper= [[The Guardian]]|date= 4 February 2006|access-date= 18 December 2016|archive-date= 21 May 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013140/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/04/arts.italy|url-status= live}}</ref>

At the 1995 [[Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre|Acco Festival]], director [[Nola Chilton]] staged a production with Daniella Michaeli in the role of Lucky.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.accofestival.co.il/accoarchiv/1995/1995.html|title=Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre, 1995 Archive|website=accofestival.co.il|access-date=24 April 2009|archive-date=21 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721134630/http://www.accofestival.co.il/accoarchiv/1995/1995.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2021, [[São João National Theatre]] in Porto, Portugal, staged a version with Maria Leite as Lucky.<ref>{{cite web|title=À Espera de Godot · São João|date=26 March 2021 |url=https://www.tnsj.pt/pt/espetaculos/6078/a-espera-de-godot|access-date=24 September 2024}}</ref>

==Production history==
===1950s to 1969===
====France and Germany====
"[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."<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 386, 394</ref> Part of his introduction reads:
{{blockquote|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 (Waiting for Godot)|Vladimir]], [[Pozzo (Waiting for Godot)|Pozzo]], [[Lucky (Waiting for Godot)|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.<ref>Ruby Cohn on the ''Godot'' Circle in Knowlson, James and Elizabeth, (Eds.) ''Beckett Remembering – Remembering Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 2006), p. 122</ref>}}

The play was first published in September 1952 by [[Les Éditions de Minuit]]<ref>{{cite book| title=Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts| last=Beckett| first=Samuel| publisher=Faber & Faber| year=2012| isbn=978-0571297016| location=London| at=Table of Dates| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B91TKeLQ54EC&q=beckett+godot+september+1952+minuit&pg=PT16| access-date=21 October 2020| archive-date=21 May 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013126/https://books.google.com/books?id=B91TKeLQ54EC&q=beckett+godot+september+1952+minuit&pg=PT16| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title=En attendant Godot| url=https://archive.org/details/enattendantgodo00beck| url-access=registration|last=Beckett| first=Samuel| publisher=[[Les Éditions de Minuit]]| year=1952| location=Paris| at=Printer's Notice at rear of the first edition states "achevé d'imprimer sur les presses de l'imprimerie habauzit a Aubenas (Ardèche), en septembre mil neuf cent cinquante deux. Dépôt légal 3e trimestre 1952"}}</ref> and released on 17 October 1952 in advance of the first full theatrical performance;<ref>{{cite news |last=McCrum |first=Robert |date=15 August 2016 |title=The 100 best nonfiction books: No 29 – Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (1952/53) |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/15/100-best-nonfiction-books-waiting-for-godot-samuel-beckett-robert-mccrum |work=The Guardian |access-date=18 January 2019 |archive-date=22 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622172507/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/15/100-best-nonfiction-books-waiting-for-godot-samuel-beckett-robert-mccrum |url-status=live }}</ref> only 2500 copies were printed of this first edition.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Samuel Beckett: An Exhibition Held at Reading University Library, May to July 1971|last=Knowlson|first=James|publisher=Turret Books|year=1971|location=London|page=61|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TO5QAQAAIAAJ&q=beckett+godot+1952+minuit+2500|access-date=21 October 2020|archive-date=21 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013106/https://books.google.com/books?id=TO5QAQAAIAAJ&q=beckett+godot+1952+minuit+2500|url-status=live}}</ref> 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"<ref>[[Ruby Cohn|Cohn, Ruby]], ''From Desire to Godot'' (London: Calder Publications; New York: Riverrun Press), 1998, pp. 153, 157</ref> 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]]''."<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 387, 778 n. 139</ref>

The cast comprised {{interlanguage link|Pierre Latour (actor)|fr|Pierre Latour (artiste)|lt=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 [[Dresser (theatre)|theatre dresser]] on his rounds as he worked clearing the dustbins",<ref>Interview with Jean Martin, September 1989. Referenced in Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 386, 387</ref> for example. Blin helped the actors embody their characters by asking them to determine a physical malady that would contribute to the nature of their character.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Birkett |first=Jennifer |title=Undoing time: the life and work of Samuel Beckett |date=2017 |publisher=Irish Academic Press |isbn=978-0-7165-3290-3 |location=Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland |page=122}}</ref> Latour emphasized Estragon's bad feet and Raimbourg Vladimir's prostate problems, while Blin played Pozzo as a man with heart difficulties. Martin played Lucky with the symptoms of [[Parkinson's disease]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dumontet |first=Mathilde |date=2020 |title=Concurrence Économique et Interénétration Artistique dans La Parodie et En Attendant Godot de Roger Blin |journal=European Drama and Performance Studies |language=fr |issue=14 |pages=129–144 |via=EBSCOhost}}</ref>

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 [[Theft|thieves]], [[Forgery|forgers]], [[criminal|toughs]], [[Homosexuality|homos]], [[Lunatic|crazy men]] and [[Murder|killers]] spend this bitch of a life waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting. Waiting for what? Godot? Perhaps."<ref>Letter from an unnamed Lüttringhausen prisoner, 1 October 1956. Translated by James Knowlson. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 431</ref> 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."<ref name=Knowlson />

====UK====
Like all of Beckett's translations, the English translation of ''Waiting for Godot'' is not simply a literal translation of ''{{Lang|fr|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<ref>A farmer in Roussillon, the village where Beckett fled during World War II; he never worked for the Bonnellys, though he used to visit and purchase eggs and wine there. See {{harvnb|Cronin|1997|p=333}}</ref>), show how the translation became more indefinite, attrition and loss of memory more pronounced."{{sfn|Ackerley|Gontarski|2006|pp=622, 623}} A number of biographical details were removed, all adding to a general "vaguening"<ref>An expression coined by Beckett in which he makes the "meaning" less and less clear at each draft. A detailed discussion of Beckett's method can be found in Pountney, R., ''Theatre of Shadows: Samuel Beckett's Drama'' 1956–1976 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1988) although it concentrates on later works when this process had become more refined.</ref> of the text which he continued to trim for the rest of his life.

The English-language saw its first UK production on 3 August 1955 at the [[Arts Theatre]] in London, directed by [[Peter Hall (director)|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."<ref name=Klein>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/02/nyregion/theater-reviews-decades-later-the-quest-for-meaning-goes-on.html|title=Decades Later, the Quest for Meaning Goes On|last=Klein|first=Alvin|author-link=Alvin Klein|newspaper=The New York Times|date=2 November 1997|access-date=4 June 2019|archive-date=24 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724144302/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/02/nyregion/theater-reviews-decades-later-the-quest-for-meaning-goes-on.html|url-status=live}}</ref> 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)."{{sfn|Ackerley|Gontarski|2006|pp=620, 621}}

In the 1950s, theatre was strictly [[Censorship|censored]] in the UK, to Beckett's amazement since he thought it a bastion of [[Freedom of speech|free speech]]. The [[Lord Chamberlain]] insisted that the word "[[erection]]" be removed, "&thinsp;'Fartov' became 'Popov' and Mrs Gozzo had '[[wart]]s' instead of '[[Gonorrhea|clap]]{{'"}}.{{sfn|Bair|1990|p=471}} 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."<ref>Letter released under the [[Freedom of information legislation|Freedom of Information Act]]. Quoted by Peter Hall in '[https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/aug/24/theatre.beckettat100 Godot Almighty] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013130/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/aug/24/theatre.beckettat100 |date=21 May 2024 }}', ''[[The Guardian]]'', 24 August 2005</ref> "The first unexpurgated version of ''Godot'' in England ... opened at the [[Royal Court Theatre|Royal Court]] on 30 December 1964."{{sfn|Bair|1990|p=613}}

The London run was not without incident. The actor [[Peter Bull]], who played Pozzo, recalls the reaction of that first night audience:
<blockquote>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]]<ref>[[Peter Woodthorpe]] on the British première of ''Waiting for Godot'' in Knowlson, James and Elizabeth, (Eds.) ''Beckett Remembering – Remembering Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 2006), p. 122</ref>) and a depression and a sense of anti-climax descended on us all.<ref>Bull, P., ''I know the face but ...'', quoted in ''Casebook on 'Waiting for Godot'', pp. 41, 42. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 414</ref></blockquote>

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."<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 415</ref> "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."<ref>[http://samuel-beckett.net/PeterHallGodot.html Peter Hall looks back at the original Godot] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006123343/http://samuel-beckett.net/PeterHallGodot.html |date=6 October 2007 }}, Samuel-Beckett.net</ref>

On 27 April 1960, the [[BBC Third Programme]] broadcast the very first radio adaptation, directed by [[Donald McWhinnie]], with [[Patrick Magee (actor)|Patrick Magee]] as Vladimir, [[Wilfrid Brambell]] as Estragon, [[Felix Felton]] as Pozzo, [[Donal Donnelly]] as Lucky and Jeremy Ward as The Boy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/a1466f7dc8c34253862877178574d128 |title=BBC Third Programme: "Waiting for Godot" |website=BBC Programme Index |date=27 April 1960 |access-date=2023-02-23 |archive-date=23 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223192417/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/a1466f7dc8c34253862877178574d128 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/960b8bcc4dad4380a6da7d68a71538d4 |title=BBC Television: "Waiting for Godot" |website=BBC Programme Index |date=26 June 1961 |access-date=2023-02-23 |archive-date=23 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223195655/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/960b8bcc4dad4380a6da7d68a71538d4 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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 (actor)|Nigel Stock]] as Vladimir, [[Kenneth Griffith]] as Estragon, Philip Leaver as Pozzo, [[Andrew Sachs]] as Lucky and Terry Raven as The Boy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/618256147add4dc785f814507a6ec10c |title=From the Fifties: "Waiting for Godot" |website=BBC Programme Index |date=5 February 1962 |access-date=2023-03-02 |archive-date=5 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305122558/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/618256147add4dc785f814507a6ec10c |url-status=live }}</ref>

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.

====US====
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.{{sfn|Bradby|2001|page=93}} It had been promoted as "the laugh sensation of two continents" in the notices run by Myerberg in the local newspapers.{{sfn|Bradby|2001|p=93}}

Most audience members were baffled by the play.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94105614/advertisement-for-american-premiere-of/|title=Advertisement for Coconut Grove Playhouse's American premiere of ''Waiting for Godot''|date=18 December 1955|work=Miami Herald|access-date=3 February 2022|page=18-F|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=21 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521014311/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-herald-advertisement-for-ameri/94105614/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|first=Jane|last=Wood|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94105387/coconut-grove-playhouse-opens-with-us/|title=Millionaire's Magic Wand Transforms Grove Theater|date=3 January 1956|work=Miami News|access-date=3 February 2022|page=25A|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=3 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203160408/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94105387/coconut-grove-playhouse-opens-with-us/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|first=Jack|last=Anderson|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94104886/miami-herald-review-of-us-premiere-of/|title=Mink-Clad Audience Disappointed in 'Waiting for Godot'|date=4 January 1956|work=Miami Herald|access-date=3 February 2022|page=8-A|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=3 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203160415/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94104886/miami-herald-review-of-us-premiere-of/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|first=Helen|last=Wells|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94110041/helen-wells-article-on-american/|title=Grove Playhouse Impressed Audience Even If Play Didn't|date=4 January 1956|work=Miami Herald|access-date=3 February 2022|page=1-B|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=21 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521014349/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-herald-helen-wells-article-on/94110041/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|first=Mary|last=Axelson|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94109051/mary-axelson-theaters-actors-were/|title=Theater's 'Actors' Were In Audience|date=8 January 1956|work=Miami News|access-date=3 February 2022|page=98A|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=3 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203163503/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94109051/mary-axelson-theaters-actors-were/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94105614/advertisement-for-american-premiere-of/|title=Advertisement for Coconut Grove Playhouse: "Make Up Your Own Mind!"|date=10 January 1956|work=Miami News|access-date=3 February 2022|page=6B|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=3 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203155148/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94105614/advertisement-for-american-premiere-of/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|first=Walter|last=Locke|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94105114/walter-locke-on-miami-us-premiere-of/|title=This Waiting for Godot: Our Own Blind Alley?|date=27 January 1956|work=Miami News|access-date=3 February 2022|page=18A|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=3 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203161121/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94105114/walter-locke-on-miami-us-premiere-of/|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Graver |first1=Lawrence |title=Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-54938-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/samuelbeckettwai00grav_0/page/16 16] |edition=2nd |url=https://archive.org/details/samuelbeckettwai00grav_0/page/16 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schlueter |first1=June |editor1-last=Brunkhorst |editor1-first=M. |editor2-last=Rohmann |editor2-first=G. |editor3-last=Schoell |editor3-first=K. |title=The American Theatre since Waiting for Godot |journal=Brunkhorst |date=1988 |page=218 |url=https://dspace.lafayette.edu/bitstream/handle/10385/1186/Schlueter-BeckettunddieLiteraturderGegenwart-1988.pdf?sequence=1 |access-date=2 December 2018 |publisher=Universitätsverlag Winter |location=Heidelberg |archive-date=14 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214071030/https://dspace.lafayette.edu/bitstream/handle/10385/1186/Schlueter-BeckettunddieLiteraturderGegenwart-1988.pdf?sequence=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Graver|2004|p=17}} The play had its [[Broadway theatre|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.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/03/reviews/beckett-godot.html?module=inline|title=Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot'|author=[[Brooks Atkinson]]|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=20 April 1956|access-date=23 June 2019|archive-date=28 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128034910/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/03/reviews/beckett-godot.html?module=inline|url-status=live}}</ref> The New York showing of the play prompted discussions of the play being an allegory. One reviewer, [[Henry Hewes (critic)|Henry Hewes]] of the ''[[Saturday Review (U.S. magazine)|Saturday Review]]'', identified Godot as God, Pozzo as a capitalist-aristocrat, and Lucky as labour-proletarian.{{sfn|Graver|2004|p=17}} 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.{{sfn|Graver|2004|pp=17-18}} 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.{{sfn|Bradby|2001|p=94}} The production was recorded as a two-record album by [[Columbia Masterworks Records]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/11661702-Bert-Lahr-And-EG-Marshall-Kurt-Kasznar-With-Alvin-Epstein-Luchino-Solito-De-Solis-Waiting-For-Godot |title=Bert Lahr And E.G. Marshall, Kurt Kasznar With Alvin Epstein, Luchino Solito De Solis – Waiting For Godot |website=Discogs.com |access-date=2023-03-03 |archive-date=19 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219203411/https://www.discogs.com/release/11661702-Bert-Lahr-And-EG-Marshall-Kurt-Kasznar-With-Alvin-Epstein-Luchino-Solito-De-Solis-Waiting-For-Godot |url-status=live }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/manuscript-annotations-by-samuel-beckett-in-a-copy-of-waiting-for-godot-for-a-production-by-the-san-quentin-drama-workshop|title=Manuscript annotations by Samuel Beckett in a copy of ''Waiting for Godot'' for a production by the San Quentin Drama Workshop|website=The British Library|access-date=2020-02-15|archive-date=26 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126034212/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/manuscript-annotations-by-samuel-beckett-in-a-copy-of-waiting-for-godot-for-a-production-by-the-san-quentin-drama-workshop|url-status=dead}}</ref> Beckett later gave [[Rick Cluchey]], a former prisoner from San Quentin, financial and moral support over a period of many years.<ref name=Knowlson>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 410, 411</ref> 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."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rhystranter.com/2015/05/15/rick-cluchey-san-quentin-drama-workshop-beckett-interview/|title=San Quentin and Samuel Beckett: An Interview with Rick Cluchey|last=Tranter|first=Rhys|date=2015-05-15|website=RhysTranter.com|access-date=2020-02-15|archive-date=15 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215121638/https://rhystranter.com/2015/05/15/rick-cluchey-san-quentin-drama-workshop-beckett-interview/|url-status=live}}</ref> The attitude of this troupe was to move it away from a commercial attitude to an ''[[avant garde]]'' attitude.{{sfn|Bradby|2001|p=96}} As well, the play did not have competition between the actors playing Vladimir and Estragon for being the star of the show.{{sfn|Bradby|2001|p=101}} 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.{{sfn|Bradby|2001|p=104}} 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]].{{sfn|Ackerley|Gontarski|2004|page=622}}

The first Broadway revival was produced in 1957 at the [[Ethel Barrymore Theatre]] directed by [[Herbert Berghof]], but only ran for six performances (21–26 January).<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/waiting-for-godot-2604|title= Waiting for Godot, 1957|website= Internet Broadway Database|access-date= 2023-02-10|archive-date= 29 December 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211229173853/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/waiting-for-godot-2604|url-status= live}}</ref> It had an all-Black cast, including [[Earle Hyman]] as Vladimir, [[Mantan Moreland]] as Estragon, [[Rex Ingram (actor)|Rex Ingram]] as Pozzo and [[Geoffrey Holder]] as Lucky. This rendition of ''Waiting for Godot'' played on themes of the [[Afro-Surrealism|Africana absurd]] as opposed to the [[Theatre of the absurd|European absurd]]. For example, Hyman's career as a classical actor and Moreland's as a vaudeville actor were used to juxtapose the different facets of African American theatre in the mind of the audience.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vogel |first=Shane |date=January 2022 |title=Waiting for Godot and the Racial Theater of the Absurd |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/waiting-for-godot-and-the-racial-theater-of-the-absurd/E9E0DFABE78D9DF858AA12F1CA471961 |journal=Publications of the Modern Language Association of America |language=en |volume=137 |issue=1 |pages=19–35 |doi=10.1632/S0030812921000766 |issn=0030-8129 |access-date=28 February 2024 |archive-date=28 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240228175433/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/waiting-for-godot-and-the-racial-theater-of-the-absurd/E9E0DFABE78D9DF858AA12F1CA471961 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Also in May 1957, a production directed by Walter Biakel was staged at the [[Fine Arts Building (Chicago)|Studebaker Theatre in Chicago]] with [[Harvey Korman]] as Vladimir, [[Louis Zorich]] as Estragon, [[Moultrie Patten]] as Pozzo and [[Mike Nichols]] as Lucky.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.abouttheartists.com/productions/139284-waiting-for-godot-at-studebaker-theatre-1957 | title=Playwrights Theatre Club presents Waiting for Godot | website=About the Artists | access-date=2023-02-10}}</ref>

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

====Australia====
In the Australian premiere at the Arrow Theatre in Melbourne in 1957, [[Barry Humphries]] played Estragon opposite [[Peter O'Shaughnessy]]'s Vladimir.<ref name=OZ>[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/two-blokes-walked-on-to-a-stage/story-fn9n8gph-1226754361206 "Two blokes walked on to a stage"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112125306/http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/two-blokes-walked-on-to-a-stage/story-fn9n8gph-1226754361206 |date=12 November 2013 }} by Sharon Vergis, ''[[The Australian]]'', 9 November 2013</ref>

====Canada====
''Waiting for Godot'' was first performed at the [[Stratford Festival]] in 1968 at the Avon Theatre in a production directed by [[William Hutt (actor)|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archives.stratfordfestival.ca/AIS/Details/productions/102 |title=Stratford Festival Production/Event Register: Waiting for Godot, 1968 |website=Stratford Festival |access-date=2023-02-10 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

====South Africa====
The very first South African production was performed in 1955 at the [[Little Theatre (Cape Town)|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.<ref name="esat.sun.ac.za">{{cite web |url=https://esat.sun.ac.za/index.php/Waiting_for_Godot |title=Waiting for Godot - Performance History in South Africa |website=ESAT |access-date=2023-03-03 |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412082852/https://esat.sun.ac.za/index.php/Waiting_for_Godot |url-status=live }}</ref> The play was also presented at the Hofmeyr Theatre and then taken on a tour of several country towns in South Africa.

====Brazil====
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 6 May 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 14 June.<ref>{{cite journal |url =http://almanaque.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrada_15jun1969.htm |title =A morte de Cacilda Becker |journal =Almanaque Folha |publisher =UOL |access-date =22 August 2023 |archive-date =27 April 2023 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20230427202022/http://almanaque.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrada_15jun1969.htm |url-status =live }}</ref>

==== Poland ====
The Polish premiere took place on 25 January 1957, at Teatr Współczesny in Warsaw. directed by Jerzy Kreczmar and featuring [[Tadeusz Fijewski]] as Vladimir and [[Józef Kondrat]] as Estragon.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Czekając na Godota - przedstawienia |url=https://encyklopediateatru.pl/przedstawienie/11934/czekajac-na-godota |access-date=2023-11-01 |website=Encyklopedia teatru polskiego |archive-date=21 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521014822/https://encyklopediateatru.pl/przedstawienie/11934/czekajac-na-godota |url-status=live }}</ref> The Polish premiere was the fifth in the world and the first in the Communist Bloc.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brzeska |first=Ewa |url=https://monografie.fnp.org.pl/monografie/images/Files/gvo5XmRxV9neAiDW4lFJ1cBKjGUbtEYN.pdf |title=Recepcja twórczości Samuela Becketta w Polsce |publisher=Wydawnictwo UMK |year=2020 |isbn=978-83-231-4339-0 |location=Toruń |pages=12 |language=pl |access-date=1 November 2023 |archive-date=1 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231101013229/https://monografie.fnp.org.pl/monografie/images/Files/gvo5XmRxV9neAiDW4lFJ1cBKjGUbtEYN.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

===1970s to 2000===
[[File:Waiting for Godot set Theatre Royal Haymarket 2009.jpg|thumb|Set of [[Haymarket Theatre|Theatre Royal Haymarket]] 2009 production]]

In 1977, [[Public Broadcasting System|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 (actor)|Bruce French]] as Lucky.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0217138/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_3 |title=Waiting for Godot (TV Movie-1977) |website=IMDb |access-date=2023-03-03 |archive-date=26 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230126181149/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0217138/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_3 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1692587/ |title=Drama: Waiting for Godot |website=IMDb |access-date=2023-03-03 |archive-date=24 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424000813/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1692587/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://levyarchive.bam.org/Detail/occurrences/770 |title=Waiting for Godot - May 25-June 18, 1978 |website=BAM Archives |access-date=2023-03-06 |archive-date=21 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521014816/https://levyarchive.bam.org/Detail/occurrences/770 |url-status=live }}</ref>

A young [[Geoffrey Rush]] played Vladimir opposite his then flatmate [[Mel Gibson]] as Estragon in 1979 at the Jane Street Theatre in Sydney.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gordinier |first=Jeff |date=1996-11-29 |title=Geoffrey Rush 'Shine's |url=https://ew.com/article/1996/11/29/geoffrey-rush-shines/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421030243/https://ew.com/article/1996/11/29/geoffrey-rush-shines/ |archive-date=2021-04-21 |access-date=2024-03-09 |website=EW.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 1980, [[Braham Murray]] directed a production at the [[Royal Exchange, Manchester|Royal Exchange Theatre]] in [[Manchester]] with [[Max Wall]] as Vladimir, [[Trevor Peacock]] as Estragon and [[Wolfe Morris]] as Pozzo.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-08142-4_16 |title=Royal Exchange Theatre Company, Manchester, 1980 - Waiting for Godot |chapter=Royal Exchange Theatre Company, Manchester, 1980 |series=Text and Performance |year=1990 |pages=61–73 |publisher=Macmillan Education UK |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-08142-4_16 |isbn=9781349081424 |access-date=2023-03-03 |last1=Worth |first1=Katharine |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412082844/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-08142-4_16 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Also in 1980, a production was performed at the [[Baxter Theatre Centre|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").<ref name="esat.sun.ac.za" /> 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 [[Makhanda, South Africa|Grahamstown]] National Arts Festival, the [[Gqeberha|Port Elizabeth]] Opera House, and the [[Market Theatre (Johannesburg)|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archives.stratfordfestival.ca/AIS/Details/productions/320 |title=Stratford Festival Production/Event Register: Waiting for Godot, 1984 |website=Stratford Festival |access-date=2023-02-10 |archive-date=10 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210195755/https://archives.stratfordfestival.ca/AIS/Details/productions/320 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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,<ref>Henry, William A., III in ''Time'',[https://web.archive.org/web/20071113162958/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,968952,00.html Theater: Clowning Around with a Classic Waiting for Godot]</ref> 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."<ref>Rich, Frank. [http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=940DE4DE1231F934A35752C1A96E948260 ''Godot'': The Timeless Relationship of 2 Interdependent Souls]</ref>

{{Anchor|WestEnd1}}The play was revived in [[West End theatre|London's West End]] at the [[Sondheim Theatre|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 (actor)|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.<ref name=mayallprog>From the programme to the production.</ref>

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]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-06-11-vl-275-story.html |title=A New Stage : Dana Elcar, who will play in 'Waiting for Godot,' is learning that blindness doesn't have to stop him from being active |website=Los Angeles Times |date=11 June 1992 |access-date=2023-02-10 |archive-date=10 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210174225/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-06-11-vl-275-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

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 [[#France and Germany|above]])'' was broadcast on [[BBC Radio 3]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/cc84b9e8d25a4ffca3ad2d40237b7613 |title="En Attendant Godot" |website=BBC Programme Index |date=3 September 1994 |access-date=2023-02-23 |archive-date=23 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223195008/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/cc84b9e8d25a4ffca3ad2d40237b7613 |url-status=live }}</ref> The following day, 4 September 1994, [[BBC Radio 3]] broadcast a production in English with [[Alan Howard (actor)|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;<ref>{{cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/3bed285b78274b2aa94cc190766fcf8e |title=The Sunday Play: "Waiting for Godot" |website=BBC Programme Index |date=4 September 1994 |access-date=2023-02-23 |archive-date=23 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223193411/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/3bed285b78274b2aa94cc190766fcf8e |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archives.stratfordfestival.ca/AIS/Details/productions/476 |title=Stratford Festival Production/Event Register: Waiting for Godot, 1996 |website=Stratford Festival |access-date=2023-02-10 |archive-date=10 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210185931/https://archives.stratfordfestival.ca/AIS/Details/productions/476 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archives.stratfordfestival.ca/AIS/Details/productions/502 |title=Stratford Festival Production/Event Register: Waiting for Godot, 1998 |website=Stratford Festival |access-date=2023-02-10 |archive-date=10 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210191743/https://archives.stratfordfestival.ca/AIS/Details/productions/502 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In June 1999, the [[Royal Exchange, Manchester]] staged a production directed by Matthew Lloyd with [[Richard Wilson (Scottish actor)|Richard Wilson]] as Vladimir, [[Brian Pettifer]] as Estragon and [[Nicky Henson]] as Pozzo.<ref>{{Cite web |title=REVIEW: Waiting for Godot, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Runs until June 26. |url=https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/6123470.review-waiting-for-godot-royal-exchange-theatre-manchester-runs-until-june-26/ |access-date=2023-02-14 |website=The Bolton News |date=19 May 1999 |language=en |archive-date=14 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214111309/https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/6123470.review-waiting-for-godot-royal-exchange-theatre-manchester-runs-until-june-26/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===2000 to present===
[[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]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://belvoir.com.au/productions/waiting-for-godot/ |title=Belvoir St. Theatre - Past Shows: "Waiting for Godot" |website=Belvoir.com.au |access-date=2023-02-24 |archive-date=21 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521014827/https://belvoir.com.au/productions/waiting-for-godot/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://theconversation.com/review-sydneys-newest-godot-is-a-bold-and-ambitious-success-19904|title=Review: Sydney's newest Godot is a bold and ambitious success|first=Anthony|last=Uhlmann|website=The Conversation|date=18 November 2013|access-date=4 March 2023|archive-date=4 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230304140900/http://theconversation.com/review-sydneys-newest-godot-is-a-bold-and-ambitious-success-19904|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 16 April 2006, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a production directed by [[John Tydeman]], with [[Sean Barrett (actor)|Sean Barrett]] as Vladimir, [[David Burke (British actor)|David Burke]] as Estragon, [[Nigel Anthony]] as Lucky and The Narrator, [[Terence Rigby]] as Pozzo and Zachary Fox as The Boy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/f3d1e4a53cf444248efad8961d8a53e1 |title=Drama on 3: "Waiting for Godot" |website=BBC Programme Index |date=16 April 2006 |access-date=2023-02-23 |archive-date=23 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223194241/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/f3d1e4a53cf444248efad8961d8a53e1 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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 [[Effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans|failure of the federal levee system]] caused by [[Hurricane Katrina]]. This was followed by two performances in the similarly damaged neighborhood [[Gentilly, New Orleans|Gentilly]] on 9 and 10 November. The production was staged by American artist [[Paul Chan (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, J. Kyle Manzay as Estragon, Tony Felix and Michael Pepp as Boy.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/12/usa.media|title=The lower ninth ward meets Samuel Beckett|date=12 November 2007|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=28 November 2018|archive-date=21 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013132/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/12/usa.media|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://creativetime.org/programs/archive/2007/chan/welcome.html | title=Waiting for Godot in New Orleans | access-date=29 November 2018 | archive-date=29 November 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129100125/http://creativetime.org/programs/archive/2007/chan/welcome.html | url-status=live }}</ref> [https://creativetime.org/programs/archive/2007/chan/play.html Waiting for Godot in New Orleans]

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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sir Ian McKellen to play in Fugard Theatre in July |url=https://www.mediaupdate.co.za/media/26979/sir-ian-mckellen-to-play-in-fugard-theatre-in-july |access-date=2023-01-23 |website=Media Update |date=21 June 2010 |language=en |archive-date=21 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521014829/https://www.mediaupdate.co.za/media/26979/sir-ian-mckellen-to-play-in-fugard-theatre-in-july |url-status=live }}</ref> This production toured to [[Adelaide]], South Australia, in June 2010, playing at [[Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide|Her Majesty's]].<ref>{{cite web | last=Rodda | first=Paul | title=Waiting for Godot | website=The Barefoot Review | url=https://www.thebarefootreview.com.au/archive/2010/71-waiting-for-godot.html | date=2010 | access-date=6 April 2022 | archive-date=25 March 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325194619/http://www.thebarefootreview.com.au/archive/2010/71-waiting-for-godot.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=lenny2010>{{cite web | last=Lenny | first=Barry | title=Waiting for Godot  | website=Glam Adelaide | date=10 June 2010 | url=https://glamadelaide.com.au/waiting-for-godot/ | access-date=6 April 2022}}</ref>

A 2009 Broadway revival of the play starring [[Nathan Lane]] as Estragon, [[John Goodman]] as Pozzo, [[John Glover (actor)|John Glover]] as Lucky and [[Bill Irwin]] as Vladimir was nominated for three [[Tony Award]]s: 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).<ref>{{cite web | title=Nominations / 2009 | website=The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards | url=https://www.tonyawards.com/nominees/year/2009/category/any/show/any/ | access-date=6 April 2022 | archive-date=11 December 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211211203118/https://www.tonyawards.com/nominees/year/2009/category/any/show/any/ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/waiting-for-godot-481504 |title=Internet Broadway Database: Waiting for Godot, 2009 |website=Internet Broadway Database |access-date=2023-02-10 |archive-date=10 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210194702/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/waiting-for-godot-481504 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2012, a critically acclaimed production starred [[Alan Mandell]], [[Barry McGovern]], [[James Cromwell]], and Hugo Armstrong at the [[Mark Taper Forum]] in Los Angeles, receiving five [[Ovation Awards]], including best production of a play by a large theater and for actors Alan Mandell and Hugo Armstrong.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ng |first=David |date=12 November 2012 |title=Center Theatre Group, Celebration Theatre top 2012 Ovation Awards |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-ovation-awards-center-theatre-group-20121112-story.html |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=Los Angeles Times |archive-date=21 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013611/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-ovation-awards-center-theatre-group-20121112-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=20239&prodid=47015 |title=Stratford Festival - Waiting for Godot - About the Play |access-date=1 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130804122751/http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=20239&prodid=47015 |archive-date=4 August 2013}}</ref>

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 [[James Earl Jones Theatre|Cort Theatre]] on Broadway on 26 October 2013, and ran from 24 November 2013, to 30 March 2014.<ref name="NYT-20131112" /><ref name="NYT-20131124">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/theater/reviews/no-mans-land-and-waiting-for-godot-at-the-cort.html|title=Filling the Existential Void – ''No Man's Land'' and ''Waiting for Godot'', at the Cort|last=Brantley|first=Ben|author-link=Ben Brantley|date=24 November 2013|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=24 November 2013|url-access=subscription|archive-date=25 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131125125944/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/theater/reviews/no-mans-land-and-waiting-for-godot-at-the-cort.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="godot-2013-mckellen">{{cite web|url=http://www.mckellen.com/stage/godot/broadway-2013/index.htm|title=Waiting for Godot (Broadway 2013)|work=Ian McKellen Official Home Page|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130626010717/http://www.mckellen.com/stage/godot/broadway-2013/index.htm|archive-date=26 June 2013|url-status=dead|access-date=27 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/waiting-for-godot-494777 |title=Internet Broadway Database: Waiting for Godot, 2013-2014 |website=Internet Broadway Database |access-date=2023-02-10 |archive-date=10 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110232501/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/waiting-for-godot-494777 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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]].<ref name="OZ" />

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]].<ref name="NYT-20181104">{{cite news|last=Brantley|first=Ben|author-link=Ben Brantley|title=Review: A ''Waiting for Godot'' as Comically Futile as a Looney Tune|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/04/theater/waiting-for-godot-review-druid-theater.html|date=4 November 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=10 November 2018|archive-date=10 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181110095513/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/04/theater/waiting-for-godot-review-druid-theater.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

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."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://creativefeel.co.za/2020/10/embodying-beckett-waiting-for-godot-at-the-centre-for-the-less-good-idea/ |title=Embodying Beckett: 'Waiting for Godot' at The Centre for the Less Good Idea |website=Creative feel |date=21 October 2020 |access-date=2023-02-24 |archive-date=28 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928082332/https://creativefeel.co.za/2020/10/embodying-beckett-waiting-for-godot-at-the-centre-for-the-less-good-idea/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 [[Black Thought|Tariq Trotter]] as Pozzo, was performed online in the style of a [[Zoom (software)|Zoom]] [[Teleconference|teleconference call]] with each actor performing on camera from their respective locations.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14507448/?ref_=tt_sims_tt_t_2 |title=Waiting for Godot |website=[[IMDb.com]] |access-date=26 January 2023 |archive-date=21 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521015340/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14507448/?ref_=tt_sims_tt_t_2 |url-status=live }}</ref> The production was presented by [[The New Group]] and broadcast by the Off Stage Broadway production company for rental or full-access pass.

In New York City, the [[Theatre for a New Audience]] staged a production from 4 November 2023, to 3 December 2023 (extended to 23 December 2023) with [[Paul Sparks]] as Estragon, [[Michael Shannon]] as Vladimir, [[Ajay Naidu]] as Pozzo, and Jeff Biehl as Lucky. It was directed by Arin Arbus.<ref>{{cite news|last=Collins-Hughes|first=Laura|title='Waiting for Godot' Review: Old Friends Falling in and Out of Sync|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/14/theater/waiting-for-godot-review.html|date=14 November 2023|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=10 December 2023|archive-date=10 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231210163718/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/14/theater/waiting-for-godot-review.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://playbill.com/article/michael-shannon-and-paul-sparks-led-waiting-for-godot-extends-off-broadway-for-the-2nd-time|title=Michael Shannon and Paul Sparks-Led Waiting for Godot Extends Off-Broadway For the 2nd Time|website=Playbill|date=5 December 2023|access-date=10 December 2023|archive-date=10 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231210185237/https://playbill.com/article/michael-shannon-and-paul-sparks-led-waiting-for-godot-extends-off-broadway-for-the-2nd-time|url-status=live}}</ref>

A production directed by [[James Macdonald (director)|James Macdonald]] ran at the [[Theatre Royal, Haymarket]], in London's [[West End theatre|West End]] from September to December 2024, with [[Ben Whishaw]] as Vladimir, [[Lucian Msamati]] as Estragon, Tom Edden as Lucky and Jonathan Slinger as Pozzo.<ref>{{cite news |title=Waiting for Godot (London, Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2024) |url=https://playbill.com/production/waiting-for-godot-london-theatre-royal-haymarket-2024 |access-date=19 August 2025 |work=[[Playbill]]}}</ref>

A new Broadway production launched in 2025, directed by [[Jamie Lloyd (director)|Jamie Lloyd]] and starring longtime friends and collaborators [[Keanu Reeves]] and [[Alex Winter]] as Estragon and Vladimir, respectively, [[Brandon J. Dirden]] as Pozzo, and [[Michael Patrick Thornton]] as Lucky.<ref>{{cite web|title=Waiting for Godot on Broadway • Keanu Reeves & Alex Winter|url=https://godotbroadway.com/|website=Waiting for Godot on Broadway|access-date=30 July 2025}}</ref> Previews began on 13 September. The show opened on 28 September to mixed reviews,<ref>{{cite news|last=Collins-Hughes|first=Laura |title='Waiting for Godot' Review: Cue the Air Guitar|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/theater/waiting-for-godot-review-keanu-reeves.html|date=28 September 2025|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> and has a limited run scheduled to conclude on 4 January 2026.

== Adaptations ==
Beckett received numerous requests to adapt ''Waiting for Godot'' for film and television.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Damned to Fame: the Life of Samuel Beckett| last=Knowlson| first=James| publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|year=2014|isbn=9781408857663|location=London}}</ref> The author, however, resisted these offers, except for occasional approval out of friendship or sympathy for the person making the request. This was the case when he agreed to some televised productions in his lifetime (including a [[The Play of the Week|1961 American telecast]] with [[Zero Mostel]] as Estragon and [[Burgess Meredith]] as Vladimir that ''[[New York Times]]'' theatre critic [[Alvin Klein]] describes as having "left critics bewildered and is now a classic").<ref name="Klein" /> When Keep Films made Beckett an offer to film an adaptation in which [[Peter O'Toole]] would feature, Beckett tersely told his French publisher to advise them: "I do not want a film of ''Godot''."<ref>SB to Jérôme Lindon, 18 April 1967. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 545</ref> The [[BBC]] broadcast a television production of ''Waiting for Godot'' on 26 June 1961 ''(see [[#UK|above]])'', a version for radio having already been transmitted on 25 April 1960. Beckett watched the programme with a few close friends in Peter Woodthorpe's [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]] flat. He was unhappy with what he saw. "My play", he said, "wasn't written for this box. My play was written for small men locked in a big space. Here you're all too big for the place."<ref>Interview with [[Peter Woodthorpe]], 18 February 1994. Referenced in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 487, 488</ref> One analysis argued that Beckett's opposition to alterations and creative adaptations stem from his abiding concern with audience reaction rather than proprietary rights over a text being performed.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Text & Presentation, 2006|last=Constantinidis|first=Stratos|publisher=McFarland|year=2007|isbn=9780786430772|location=Jefferson, NC|pages=16}}</ref>

On the other hand, theatrical adaptations have had more success. For instance, Andre Engel adapted the play in 1979 and was produced in Strasbourg. In this performance, the two main characters were fragmented into 10 characters. The first four involved Gogo, Didi, Lucky, and Pozzo while the rest were divided into three pairs: two tramps, a pair of grim heterosexuals, and a bride raped by her groom.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Samuel Beckett l'œvre carrefour/l'œuvre limite| last1=Buning| first1=Marius| last2=Engelberts| first2=Matthijs| last3=Houppermans| first3=Sjef| last4=Jacquart| first4=Emmanuel| publisher=Rodopi| year=1997| isbn=978-9042003477|location=Atlanta, GA|pages=56}}</ref> Each of these embodied some characteristics of Estragon and Vladimir. A similar approach was employed by Tamiya Kuriyama who directed his own adaptation of the play in Tokyo. These interpretations, which only used extracts from the dialogues of the original, focused on the minds of the urban-dwellers today, who are considered to be no longer individuals but one of the many or of the whole, which turned such individuals into machines.<ref name=":0" />

In 1991, Chinese avant-garde theatre director Meng Jinghui (b. 1964) adapted the play (''Dengdai Geduo'' in Chinese) for his master’s graduation performance at Central Academy of Drama, with unmistakable allusions to the [[1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre|Tiananmen Square protests in 1989]]. By using metatheatrical tropes, Meng’s adaptation not only condemned both the government and the protesters but expressed strong senses of disillusion and cynicism.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Hongjian |title=Theatre of 'Disbelief': Meng Jinghui's Cynical Metatheatre in Contemporary China |journal=Asian Theatre Journal |date=Fall 2020 |volume=37 |issue=2 |page=376 |doi=10.1353/atj.2020.0033}}</ref> Additionally, by dramatically changing the main characters and the ending—transforming the philosophical and sceptic Vladimir in the original script into a vengeful idealist-turned-cynic who strangled Godot to death, Meng captures the conflicted feelings of the Chinese generation born in the 1960s towards China’s socialist past.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Hongjian |title=The Uneasy Entanglement with the Socialist Legacy: Remapping Avant-Garde Theatre in Post-Socialist China |journal= Modern Chinese Literature and Culture |date=31 December 2024 |volume=36 |issue=2 |page=344 |doi=10.3366/mclc.2024.0061 }}</ref>

Arshad Mushtaq directed a 2004 Kashmiri adaptation of the play titled ''Su Yee'' ({{Translation|He will come|literal=He will come}}) staged at Tagore Hall, [[Srinagar]].<ref name="Zargar">{{Cite web |last=Zargar |first=Safwat |date=2023-02-19 |title=The playwright who brought Godot to Kashmir |url=https://scroll.in/article/1041781/the-playwright-who-brought-godot-to-kashmir |access-date=2025-06-23 |website=Scroll.in |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sarkar |first=Vaaswat |date=2023-02-23 |title=Arshad Mushtaq's 'Theatre Of The Oppressed' Is A Beacon Of Light For Kashmir's People |url=https://homegrown.co.in/homegrown-creators/arshad-mushtaqs-theatre-of-the-oppressed-is-a-beacon-of-light-for-kashmirs-people |access-date=2025-06-23 |website=Homegrown |language=en}}</ref> The play won best direction and production by the Jammu and Kashmir government’s Academy of Art, Culture and Languages in 2004. In 2005, Mushtaq won the best director award at [[Doordarshan|Doordarshan’s]] theatre festival.<ref name="Zargar"/><ref>{{Cite web |last=Altaf |first=Sana |date=2012-12-21 |title=Breaking the silence of Kashmiri Cinema |url=https://www.dawn.com/2012/12/21/breaking-the-silence-of-kashmiri-cinema/ |access-date=2025-06-23 |website=DAWN.COM |language=en}}</ref>

A web series adaptation titled ''[[While Waiting for Godot]]'' was also produced at [[New York University]] in 2013, setting the story among the modern-day [[Homelessness in New York|New York homeless]]. Directed by Rudi Azank, the English script was based on Beckett's original French manuscript of ''{{Lang|fr|En attendant Godot}}'' (the new title being an alternate translation of the French) prior to censorship from British publishing houses in the 1950s, as well as adaptation to the stage. Season 1 of the web series won Best Cinematography at the 2014 Rome Web Awards. Season 2 was released in Spring 2014 on the show's official website whilewaitingforgodot.com.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/cybertainment/2014/06/13/No-more-waiting-for-second-Web-series-Godot/stories/201406100167| title=Cybertainment: No more waiting for second Web series 'Godot'| work=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]| last=McCoy| first=Adrian| access-date=26 September 2014| archive-date=14 July 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714180855/http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/cybertainment/2014/06/13/No-more-waiting-for-second-Web-series-Godot/stories/201406100167| url-status=live}}</ref>

==Place in Beckett's work==

Although not his favourite among his plays, ''Waiting for Godot'' was the work which brought Beckett fame and financial stability and as such it always held a special place in his affections. "When the manuscript and [[Book collecting|rare books dealer]], Henry Wenning, asked him if he could sell the original French manuscript for him, Beckett replied: 'Rightly or wrongly have decided not to let ''Godot'' go yet. Neither sentimental nor financial, probably peak of market now and never such an offer. Can't explain.{{'"}}<ref>SB to Henry Wenning, 1 January 1965 (St Louis). Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 527</ref>

==Related works==
* [[Jean Racine|Racine]]'s ''[[Bérénice]]'' is a play "in which nothing happens for five acts."<ref>[[Vivian Mercier|Mercier, V.]], ''Beckett/Beckett'' (London: Souvenir Press, 1990), p. 74</ref> In the preface to this play Racine writes: "All creativity consists in making something out of nothing." Beckett was an avid scholar of the 17th-century playwright and lectured on him during his time at [[Trinity College Dublin|Trinity]]. "Essential to the static quality of a Racine play is the pairing of characters to talk at length to each other."<ref name="Cronin, A. 1997 p. 60" />
* The title character of [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]]'s 1851 play ''Mercadet'' is waiting for financial salvation from his never-seen business partner, Godeau. Although Beckett was familiar with Balzac's [[prose]], he insisted that he learned of the play after finishing ''Waiting for Godot''.
* Many critics, including [[Al Alvarez]] and [[Christopher Ricks]], regard the protagonists in Beckett's novel ''[[Mercier and Camier]]'' as prototypes of Vladimir and Estragon.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Kennedy |editor1-first=Seán |title=Mercier et Camier |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |location=London |isbn=9780571266951 |edition=2012 |chapter=Preface|date=4 October 2012 }}</ref> "If you want to find the origins of ''Godot''", Beckett told Colin Duckworth once, "look at ''[[Murphy (novel)|Murphy]]''."<ref>Cooke, V., (Ed.) ''Beckett on File'' (London: Methuen, 1985), p. 14</ref> Here we see the agonised protagonist yearning for self-knowledge, or at least complete freedom of thought at any cost, and the [[dichotomy]] and interaction of mind and body. Mercier and Camier wander aimlessly about a boggy, rain-soaked island that, although not explicitly named, is Beckett's native Ireland. They speak convoluted dialogues similar to Vladimir and Estragon's, joke about the weather and chat in [[pub]]s, while the purpose of their odyssey is never made clear. The waiting in ''Godot'' is the wandering of the novel. "There are large chunks of dialogue which he later transferred directly into ''Godot''."{{sfn|Bair|1990|p=376}}
* ''Waiting for Godot'' has been compared with [[Tom Stoppard]]'s 1966 play, ''[[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead]]''. Parallels include two central characters who appear to be aspects of a single character and whose lives are dependent on outside forces over which they have little control. There are also plot parallels, the act of waiting as a significant element of the play, during the waiting, the characters pass time by playing [[Questions (game)|Questions]], impersonating other characters, at times repeatedly interrupting each other while at other times remaining silent for long periods.<ref>{{cite book | title=Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, Jumpers, Travesties, Arcadia |first=Jim|last=Hunter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ohoJihItGSoC |publisher=Macmillan |year=2000 |isbn=9780571197828}}</ref>
* The 1991 West End production ([[#WestEnd1|see above]]), inspired Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson to develop ''[[Bottom (TV series)|Bottom]]'', which Mayall described as a "cruder cousin" to ''Godot''.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Maume|first1=Chris|title=Rik Mayall: Comedian and actor who helped revolutionise the British comedy scene as the punk poet and Cliff Richard fan, Rick|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/rik-mayall-comedian-and-actor-who-helped-revolutionise-the-british-comedy-scene-as-the-punk-poet-and-9517289.html|access-date=31 March 2018|newspaper=The Independent|date=9 June 2014|archive-date=31 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180331173231/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/rik-mayall-comedian-and-actor-who-helped-revolutionise-the-british-comedy-scene-as-the-punk-poet-and-9517289.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Works inspired by ''Godot''==
* An unauthorised [[sequel]] was written by [[Miodrag Bulatović]] in 1966: ''Godo je došao'' (''Godot Arrived''). It was translated from [[Serbian language|Serbian]] into German (''Godot ist gekommen'') and French. The playwright presents Godot as a baker who ends up being condemned to death by the four main characters. Since it turns out he is indestructible, Lucky declares him non-existent. Although Beckett was noted for disallowing productions that took even slight liberties with his plays, he let this pass without incident but not without comment. [[Ruby Cohn]] writes: "On the flyleaf of my edition of the Bulatović play, Beckett is quoted: 'I think that all that has nothing to do with me.{{'"}}<ref>Bulatović, M., ''Il est arrive'' (Paris: Seuil, 1967). Quoted in Cohn, R., ''From Desire to Godot'' (London: Calder Publications; New York: Riverrun Press, 1998), p. 171</ref>
* [[Alan Titley]]'s Irish-language sequel {{lang|ga|Tagann Godot}} (Godot Arrives) was written for [[Oireachtas na Gaeilge]] in 1987 and produced as a [[radio play]] by [[RTÉ]] and on stage in 1990 at the [[Peacock Theatre, Dublin]] directed by [[Tómas Mac Anna]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Tagann Godot |url=http://www.irishplayography.com/play.aspx?playid=32800 |website=Irish Playography |publisher=Irish Theatre Institute |access-date=6 November 2019 |language=Irish, en |archive-date=22 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622061853/http://www.irishplayography.com/play.aspx?playid=32800 |url-status=live }}; {{cite book |last1=Welch |first1=Robert |title=The Abbey Theatre, 1899-1999: Form and Pressure |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199261352 |pages=242–244 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=64kGuhailksC&pg=PA242 |access-date=6 November 2019 |language=en |archive-date=21 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013612/https://books.google.com/books?id=64kGuhailksC&pg=PA242#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In the late 1990s an unauthorised sequel was written by [[Daniel Curzon]] entitled ''Godot Arrives''. Máirtín Coilféir finds similarities to Titley's work, of which Curzon was unaware.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Coilféir |first1=Máirtín |title=Godots arrivent: More morality plays for our times |journal=Performing Ethos: International Journal of Ethics in Theatre & Performance |date=1 October 2017 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=13–24 |doi=10.1386/peet.7.1.13_1}}</ref>
* A radical transformation was written by Bernard Pautrat, performed at [[National Theatre of Strasbourg|Théâtre National de Strasbourg]] in 1979–1980: "''Ils allaient obscurs sous la nuit solitaire'' (''d'après 'En attendant Godot' de Samuel Beckett'')(''They Went Dark Under the Lonely Night (from 'Waiting for Godot' by Samuel Beckett'')) It features not four actors and the brief appearance of a fifth one (as in Beckett's play), but ten actors. Four of them bore the names of Gogo, Didi, Lucky and Pozzo. The dialogue, consisting of extensive quotations from the original, was distributed in segments among the ten actors, not necessarily following the order of the original."<ref>Murch, A. C., "[http://www.english.fsu.edu/jobs/num09/Num9Murch.htm Quoting from Godot: trends in contemporary French theatre]" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513182123/http://www.english.fsu.edu/jobs/num09/Num9Murch.htm |date=13 May 2008}} in ''[[Journal of Beckett Studies]]'', No 9, Spring 1983</ref>
* [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]] playwright [[Labhshankar Thakar]], along with Subhash Shah, wrote a play ''Ek Undar ane Jadunath'' (''A Rat and Jadunath'') based on ''Godot'' in 1966.<ref name="Lal2006">{{cite book|first=Mohan|last=Lal|title=The Encyclopaedia Of Indian Literature (Sasay To Zorgot)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnPoYxrRfc0C&pg=PA4312|date=1 January 2006|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-1221-3|pages=4312–4313}}</ref>
* In 2006, John Griffin wrote and produced a play titled ''Godot Has Left the Building'', which serves as a modern-day homage to Beckett's ''Waiting for Godot''. Set in a post-apocalyptic landscape filled with the remnants of modern technology, the play follows two men, Sebastian and Joe, as they struggle to find meaning in their desolate world. The play retains the absurdist themes of its predecessor, focusing on existential despair and the search for purpose in a seemingly indifferent universe. Unlike ''Waiting for Godot'', which leaves many questions unanswered, ''Godot Has Left the Building'' is noted for its more direct confrontation with the futility of waiting and the inevitability of meaninglessness. The play received mixed reviews, with some critics praising its atmosphere and performances, while others criticized it for not offering the same depth as Beckett's original work.<ref>{{cite web |title='Godot Has Left the Building': Still Waiting in a Wasteland |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/theater/reviews/godot-has-left-the-building-still-waiting-in-a-wasteland.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=19 August 2024 |author=Jason Zinoman |date=30 June 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Godot Has Left the Building at 45 Below |url=https://www.newyorktheatreguide.com/theatre-news/news/godot-has-left-the-building-at-45-below |website=New York Theatre Guide |access-date=19 August 2024 |date=16 June 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Godot Has Left the Building |url=https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/godot-left-building-30304/ |website=Backstage |access-date=19 August 2024 |author=Travis Michael Holder |date=4 November 2019}}</ref>
* [[Antoinette Nwandu]]'s play ''Pass Over'' takes inspiration from ''Waiting for Godot''; it's set instead on a street corner in Chicago with two young Black men, with appearances from a white man and an officer. It was made into a [[Pass Over|film of the same name]] directed by [[Spike Lee]] in 2018.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/2021/08/04/1024833930/pass-over-covers-modern-issues-in-a-blend-of-the-bible-and-waiting-for-godot | title=Broadway's 1st Play Since COVID Closure Blends Bible, Beckett, Black Lives Matter | website=[[NPR]] | author=Lunden, Jeff | date=5 August 2021}}</ref>
*In 2019, [https://misterandmischief.fun/shows/escape-from-godot Mister & Mischief] created Escape from Godot, where an audience of eight participants must work together to explore the space, solve puzzles, call cues, and watch the performance in order to escape before "lawyers arrive to sue everyone in the theater for the entirely unauthorized and disrespectful production."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2024-08-15/escape-from-godot-mister-and-mischief-moving-arts-theatre | title=You go to this L.A. Play. When you get there, you find out you have 60 minutes to escape | website=[[Los Angeles Times]] | date=15 August 2024 }}</ref>

==In popular culture and media==

* In November/December 1987, [[Garry Trudeau]] ran a week-long spoof in his ''[[Doonesbury]]'' syndicated comic strip called "Waiting for Mario" in which two characters discussed – and dismissed – each other's hopes that [[Mario Cuomo]] would declare as a candidate in the [[1988 Democratic Party presidential primaries]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1987/11/30|title=Doonesbury Comic Strip, November 30, 1987|website=GoComics.com|access-date=26 September 2014|archive-date=13 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213124852/http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1987/11/30|url-status=live}}</ref>
* In 1992 ''[[Sesame Street]]'' had a short video in their segment "[[Monsterpiece Theater]]" entitled "Waiting for [[Elmo]]". Telly and [[Grover]] wait by a bare tree for Elmo to appear. They discuss their situation: If Elmo arrives they would be "happy", if not they would be "angry". Elmo never appears, and the tree declares it does not understand the play before leaving, prompting Telly and Grover to chase after it.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first1=Carl|editor-last1=Laver|editor-first2=Clare|editor-last2=Finburgh|title=Rethinking the Theatre of the Absurd|pages=243–244|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2015|isbn=9781472505767}}</ref>
* The 1997 comedy film ''[[Waiting for Guffman]]'' concerns a small-town community theatre group in Missouri who put on a show hoping to attract the attention of prominent Broadway producer Mort Guffman, who never arrives.<ref>[https://www.deseretnews.com/article/548632/Hilarious-Waiting-for-Guffman-is-bound-to-ring-true-with-viewers.html "Hilarious ''Waiting for Guffman'' is bound to ring true with viewers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004053759/https://www.deseretnews.com/article/548632/Hilarious-Waiting-for-Guffman-is-bound-to-ring-true-with-viewers.html |date=4 October 2018 }} by Chris Hicks, ''[[Deseret News]]'', 14 March 1997</ref>
* In 1998 a short comedic sketch in episode 9 season 9 of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' featured the two protagonist robots Crow and Tom Servo motionless and expressing they are waiting for "Gorgo" (the titular monster of the movie that was featured). It ends with Mike Nelson disguised as the monster and scaring them off.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
*The 2010 documentary film ''[[The Impossible Itself]]'' is about the 1953 Lüttringhausen and 1957 San Quentin Prison productions of ''Waiting for Godot''.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
* A 2001 [[short film]] titled ''Pitch 'n' Putt With Beckett 'n' Joyce'', parodies the play, with Beckett and [[James Joyce]] awaiting a never-seen [[W.B. Yeats]] at a [[miniature golf]] course.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
* In the 2004 video game, ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations]]'', a prosecutor going by the alias, [[Godot (Ace Attorney)|Godot]], is portrayed as mysterious after cutting all ties to his life before he went into a coma.
* In the 2008 musical [[Ride the Cyclone|''Ride The Cyclone'']] by Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond, the character of Noel Gruber is shown in a flashback to perform an excerpt from ''Waiting for Godot'' during his school's [[nativity play]], saying: "There is no room at this Inn, for it is Christmas… Shall we hang ourselves?" Noel's scene partner (portrayed by Jane Doe in the flashback) responds with: "I hear it gives you an erection." "Then we must hang ourselves... immediately" In the scene, the characters don bowler hats and speak in French accents, further cementing the reference.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
* The [[open source]] [[game engine]] [[Godot (game engine)|Godot]] is named after the titular character of the play.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Engine |first=Godot |title=Press Kit |url=https://godotengine.org/press/ |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=Godot Engine |language=en}}</ref> The two Argentine developers, Jaun Linietsky & Ariel Manzur, were repeatedly tasked with updating the engine from a period of time from 2001 to 2014. During this time, they borrowed the name "Godot" to represent the never-ending wish of adding new features to the engine, which would get it closer to an exhaustive product, but never actually complete it. Godot Engine was initially released to the public in 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mike |date=2023-11-09 |title=The Evolution/History of the Godot Game Engine |url=https://gamefromscratch.com/the-evolution-history-of-the-godot-game-engine/ |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=GameFromScratch.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
* A sketch in March 2017 on ''[[The Late Show with Stephen Colbert]]'', "Waiting for Godot's Obamacare Replacement", Colbert and [[Patrick Stewart]] satirized the [[First presidency of Donald Trump|Trump administration]]'s failure to implement their announced "[[repeal and replace]]" of [[Affordable Care Act|Obamacare]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/patrick-stewart-colbert-obamacare-waiting-for-godot_us_58b7dd14e4b0a8ded67a5c47|title=Patrick Stewart And Stephen Colbert Rip Donald Trump's Obamacare Repeal In ''Waiting for Godot'' Spoof|work=[[HuffPost]]|date=2 March 2017|access-date=2 March 2017|archive-date=2 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302134520/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/patrick-stewart-colbert-obamacare-waiting-for-godot_us_58b7dd14e4b0a8ded67a5c47|url-status=live}}</ref>
* The fourteenth-season finale of ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' (2019), titled "Waiting for Big Mo", is based on the play, substituting [[Dennis Reynolds]] and [[Charlie Kelly (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)|Charlie Kelly]] for Vladimir and Estragon, [[Mac (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)|Mac McDonald]] and [[Deandra Reynolds|Sweet Dee Reynolds]] for Pozzo and Lucky, [[Frank Reynolds (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)|Frank Reynolds]] for The Boy, and the titular "Big Mo" for Godot.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
* In season 2 episode 6 of ''[[Interview with the Vampire (TV series)|Interview With the Vampire]]'', members of the Théâtre des Vampires rehearse a play titled "Waiting for Guido" written by Irish vampire Samuel Barclay. When a performer demands to know at what point in the play Guido will actually arrive, Barclay replies that "He doesn't. He can't. He mustn't. Guido is hope. There can be no hope."{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

== See also ==

* [[Denis Johnston]], "Waiting with Beckett", ''Irish Writing'', Spring 1956, pp.&nbsp;23–28.
* [[Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century|''Le Monde''{{'}}s 100 Books of the Century]]
* [[Two-hander]]
* [[Unseen character]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
'''Sources'''
*{{cite book|last1=Ackerley|first1=C. J.|last2=Gontarski|first2=S. E.|author-link2=S. E. Gontarski|title=The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett : A Reader's Guide to His Works, Life, and Thought|year=2004|publisher=Grove Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0802140494|edition=1st}}
*{{cite book|editor1-last=Ackerley|editor1-first=C. J.|editor2-last=Gontarski|editor2-first=S. E.|title=The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett|location=London|publisher=[[Faber and Faber]]|year=2006}}
*{{cite book|last=Bair|first=Deirdre|author-link=Deirdre Bair|title=Samuel Beckett: A Biography|location=London|publisher=Vintage|year=1990}}
*{{cite book|last=Beckett|first=Samuel|title=Waiting for Godot|location=London|publisher=Faber and Faber|orig-year=1956|year=1988}}
*{{cite book|last=Beckett|first=Samuel|title=The Grove Centenary Edition|volume=III|location=New York|publisher=Grove Press|year=2006}}
*{{cite book|last=Beckett|first=Samuel|title=Waiting for Godot|date=2015|publisher=Faber and Faber|location=London}}
*{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Berlin|1999}}|reference=Berlin, Normand, [http://www.samuel-beckett.net/BerlinTraffic.html "Traffic of our stage: Why Waiting for Godot?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070804183450/http://www.samuel-beckett.net/BerlinTraffic.html |date=4 August 2007 }} in ''[[The Massachusetts Review]]'', Autumn 1999}}
*{{cite book|last1=Bradby|first1=David|author-link=David Bradby|title=Beckett: Waiting for Godot|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-59429-5}}
*{{cite book|last=Cronin|first=Anthony|author-link=Anthony Cronin|title=Samuel Beckett The Last Modernist|location=London|publisher=Flamingo|year=1997}}
*{{Cite journal|last=Esslin|first=Martin|author-link=Martin Esslin|title=The Theatre of the Absurd|journal=The Tulane Drama Review|jstor=1124873|volume=4|number=4|date=May 1960|pages=3–15|doi=10.2307/1124873}}
*{{Cite book|last=Gontarski|first=S. E.|author-link=S. E. Gontarski|title=Edinburgh Companion to Samuel Beckett and the Arts|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2014|isbn=9780748675685|location=Edinburgh}}

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline}}
* {{Wikiquote-inline}}
* {{IBDB show |9133|Waiting for Godot}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOzQuBbBuK0&t=5874s See Zero Mostel and Burgess Meredith in ''Waiting for Godot'' (1961) on YouTube]
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q26196858|id=tt0217138|title=Waiting for Godot|description=(1977) (TV)}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q77jgal4Gto&t=1391s See The 1988 San Quentin Workshop production of ''Waiting for Godot'' on YouTube] 
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q15270504|id=tt0276613|title=Waiting for Godot|description=(2001)}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180307031351/http://www.samuel-beckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part1.html Text of the play (Act I)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180208001608/http://samuel-beckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part2.html Text of the play (Act II)]
* [https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/lord-chamberlains-report-and-correspondence-about-waiting-for-godot Lord Chamberlain's report] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230310081340/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/lord-chamberlains-report-and-correspondence-about-waiting-for-godot |date=10 March 2023 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160916013936/http://www.bozolisand.com/godotquotes ''Godot Quotes and Director's Notes''] A compendium of quotations geared toward the concept of playing ''Godot'' with a slightly more [[Laurel and Hardy]]esque bent.

{{Beckett|state=collapsed}}
{{Modernism}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1953 plays]]
[[Category:Irish comedy plays]]
[[Category:French comedy plays]]
[[Category:Broadway plays]]
[[Category:Existentialist plays]]
[[Category:Theatre of the Absurd]]
[[Category:Plays by Samuel Beckett]]
[[Category:1950s debut plays]]
[[Category:Metafictional plays]]
[[Category:Surreal comedy]]
[[Category:Tragicomedy plays]]
[[Category:1950s neologisms]]
[[Category:1953 quotations]]
[[Category:Quotations from literature]]
[[Category:Two-handers]]