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

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.

This book provides an introductory study of Beckett's most famous play, dealing not just with the four main characters but with the pairings that they form, and the implications of these pairings for the very idea of character in the play. After locating Godot within the context of Beckett's work, Lawley discusses some of the play's puzzles and difficulties-including the absent "fifth character", Godot himself.

"An impressively complete survey of the play in its cultural, theatrical, historical and political contexts." - David Bradby, co-editor of Contemporary Theatre Review Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is not only an indisputably important and influential dramatic text -it is also one of the most significant western cultural landmarks of the twentieth century. Originally written in French, the play first amazed and appalled Parisian theatre-goers and critics before receiving a harshly dismissive initial critical response in Britain in 1955. Its influence since then on the international stage has been significant, impacting on generations of actors, directors and audiences.

Describes the background of Waiting for Godot, discusses its themes, and looks at its critical reception

Waiting for Godot is a byword in every major world language. No other twentieth-century play has achieved such global currency. His innovations have affected not only the writing of plays, but all aspects of their staging. In this book David Bradby explores the impact of the play and its influence on acting, directing, design, and the role of theatre in society. Bradby begins with an analysis of the play and its historical context. After discussing the first productions in France, Britain and America, he examines subsequent productions in Africa, Eastern Europe, Israel, America, China and Japan. The book assesses interpretations by actors such as Bert Lahr, David Warrilow, Georges Wilson, Barry McGovern and Ben Kingsley, and directors Roger Blin, Susan Sontag, Sir Peter Hall, Luc Bondy, Yukio Ninagawa and Beckett himself. It also contains an extensive production chronology, bibliography and illustrations from major productions.

This volume offers a comprehensive critical study of Samuel Beckett's first and most renowned dramatic work, Waiting for Godot, which has become one of the most frequently discussed, and influential plays in the history of the theatre. Lawrence Graver discusses the play's background and provides a detailed analysis of its originality and distinction as a landmark of modern theatrical art. He reviews some of the differences between Beckett's original French version and his English translation.

Presents a series of critical essays discussing the structure, themes, and subject matter of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

100 Best Non Fiction Books has its origins in the recent 2 year-long Observer serial which every week featured a work of non fiction). It is also a companion volume to McCrum's very successful 100 Best Novels published by Galileo in 2015. The list of books starts in 1611 with the King James Bible and ends in 2014 with Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction. And in between, on this extraordinary voyage through the written treasures of our culture we meet Pepys' Diaries, Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and a whole host of additional works.

Presents a collection of critical essays on the play that analyze its structure, characters, and themes.

Two old tramps wait on a bare stretch of road near a tree for Godot.

In baseball, as in much poetry, beauty comes from tension. Groundrules and boundaries confine those who would play, but the best find ways to exploit their strictures, and just as the daring base runner takes second on a fly to right, the practiced poet trips the sleepy reader with a surprise rhyme, bold line break, or a jarring reversal of foot. It’s no surprise, then, that hardball has a larger body of literature than other sports, or that aficionados are more likely than others to quote lines of verse in support of the game they love. This is Tim Peeler’s second book of poems from baseball. It contains some of his most moving and best-crafted poetry. Starting with time-honored themes—fathers and sons, baseball and time, memory and the nation, team and player and loyalty—the poet adapts the universal to the local and personal, proving that baseball, with its easy accommodation of reflection, remains a powerful tool for mining our individual and collective history.

This text gathers together interpretations of Beckett's best-known plays, illustrating a range of theoretical approaches from deconstruction to reader-response theory, psychoanalysis and feminism. Included, as well, is an introduction by Steven Connor, assessing the mutual relations between Beckett's work and contemporary literary theory. There are also introductory notes to the essays. The essays are contibuted by: Mary Bryden, James Calderwood, Steven Connor, Jane Hale, Sylvie Henning, Wolfgang Iser, Andrew Kennedy, Paul Lawley, Jeffrey Nealon, Judith Roof, and Gabriele Schwab. Steven Connor has written books on Dickens, Beckett and Postmodernist Culture.

The world fame of Samuel Beckett is due to a combination of high academic esteem and immense popularity. An innovator in prose fiction to rival Joyce, his plays have been the most influential in modern theatre history. As an author in both English and French and a writer for the page and the stage, Beckett has been the focus for specialist treatment in each of his many guises, but there have been few attempts to provide a conspectus view. This book, first published in 1994, provides thirteen introductory essays on every aspect of Beckett's work, some paying particular attention to his most famous plays (e.g. Waiting for Godot and Endgame) and his prose fictions (e.g. the 'trilogy' and Murphy). Other essays tackle his radio and television drama, his theatre directing and his poetry, followed by more general issues such as Beckett's bilingualism and his relationship to the philosophers. Reference material is provided at the front and back of the book.

Designed for first year students, this innovative guide builds on the usual knowledge base of students beginning literary study in HE by focusing on the familiar characters but introducing more sophisticated analysis.

Few works of contemporary literature are so universally acclaimed as central to our understanding of the human experience as Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett’s famous trilogy. Molloy, the first of these masterpieces, appeared in French in 1951. It was followed seven months later by Malone Dies and two years later by The Unnamable. All three have been rendered into English by the author.

In the summer of 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, an event which led to the horror of World War I. In 1992, Sarajevo again lurched into prominence as the focal point of one of the century's bloodiest civil wars. Yet Sarajevo at one point epitomized the dreams of the Enlightenment, a city where Christians, Jews and Muslims coexisted peacefully. In the midst of Sarajevo's recent decline into chaos and destruction, Susan Sontag decided to produce Act one of "Waiting for Godot", which, despite ever-advancing danger, played to packed houses. Why did this city of hope lie crushed at the end of the 20th century? Why did Sontag stage an artistic production in the midst of such overwhelming tragedy? Why "Waiting for Godot"? And, most important of all, why the silent appreciative tears of audience members who risked their lives to attend a play in the middle of a war? These are the questions which guide David Toole's theological reflections, as he seeks to come to terms with what it means to live a life of dignity in a world of undeniable suffering.

Beckett was one of the greatest and most influential literary figures of this century, and 'Waiting for Godot', now regarded as a classic of 20th-century European literature, is part of the standard repertoire in theatres around the world