Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (Beckett, Samuel)

by Samuel Beckett

Subtitled 'A tragicomedy in two Acts', and famously described by the Irish critic Vivien Mercier as a play in which 'nothing happens, twice', En attendant Godot was first performed at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris in 1953. It was translated into English by Samuel Beckett, and Waiting for Godot opened at the Arts Theatre in London in 1955.

'Go and see Waiting for Godot. At the worst you will discover a curiosity, a four-leaved clover, a black tulip; at the best something that will securely lodge in a corner of your mind for as long as you live.' Harold Hobson, 7 August 1955

'I told him that if by Godot I had meant God I would have said God, and not Godot. This seemed to disappoint him greatly.' Samuel Beckett, 1955

• ISBN10: 0571297013
• ISBN13: 9780571297016
• Publish Date: 20 September 2012 (first published 1 June 1954)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Faber & Faber
• Edition: Main
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 128
• Language: English

Reviews

[celinenyx]

I might give this a higher or lower rating, if I had understood what this play was about. I have some vague concept of some of the themes Waiting for Godot touches, for example, "Godot" very much contains the word "God", but I probably need to study this text more closely to get something out of it. It was easy enough to read, and has some comical scenes in it in a slapstick kind of way. Like many modern/postmodern texts it seems to be about going in circles and the pointlessness of life. I wonder why literary fiction writers are never happy people.