Performed across the globe by some of the world's most iconic
performers, Samuel Beckett's indelible masterpiece remains an unwavering
testament of what it means to be human.
From an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone
in 1953, followed by bewilderment among American and British audiences,
Waiting for Godot has become of the most important and enigmatic plays
of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama. As
Clive Barnes wrote, "Time catches up with genius ... Waiting for Godot
is one of the masterpieces of the century."
The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for
someone--or something--named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a
tree, inhabiting a drama spun of their own consciousness. The result is
a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been
interpreted as mankind's inexhaustible search for meaning. Beckett's
language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the
existential post-World War II Europe. His play remains one of the most
magical and beautiful allegories of our time.