Publication details
Waiting for Godot (1953) by Samuel Beckett
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | Written in French in postwar Paris, Waiting for Godot has gone on to become the most influential Irish play of the twentieth century, cited during political revolutions as well as on episodes of Sesame Street and Game of Thrones. When Samuel Beckett wrote the text, he had very little theatre experience and was living in straitened financial circumstances, but its success launched his career as a globally influential writer and director. Crucially, it was the material poverty of Godot’s stage – with its small cast of five playing against a simple outdoor backdrop containing a tree and a moon – that facilitated the play’s premiere at the experimental Théâtre de Babylone (En attendant Godot, 1953), as well as the many restagings and adaptations that have fuelled its huge cultural influence in the almost seven decades since. |