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.
