From the 1992 synopsis of Waiting for Godot in the sixth edition of the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces: "Two clownlike tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, talking, quarrelling, falling down, contemplating suicide, and generally filling up time with conversation that ranges from vaudeville patter to metaphysical speculation as they wait under a tree for a Godot who never comes."
From Benjamin Kunkel's 2006 essay on Samuel Beckett in the New Yorker: "Reading Beckett is frequently like watching the Western canon stick its fingers down its throat."
From Waiting for Godot, 1952: "Estragon: Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful!"
From a 1956 review in the Irish Times: "Nothing happens, twice."
Number of times "nothing" appears in Waiting for Godot: 26.
Number of times "awful" appears: 3.
Number of times "what?" appears: 21.
From a 1955 letter Lady Dorothy Howard wrote to the lord chamberlain: "One of the many themes running through the play is the desire of two old tramps continually to relieve themselves. Such a dramatization of lavatory necessities is offensive and against all sense of British decency."
From the World Wide Web: "Waiting for Godot: The Interactive Adventure sometimes takes a little while to load. Please be patient."
From Waiting for Godot: "Vladimir: There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet."
From Beckett's letters, 1952: "You ask me for my ideas on Waiting for Godot and my ideas on the theatre. I have no ideas on the theatre. I know nothing about it. I never go. That's reasonable."
From Edward Albee's 2006 introduction to the Grove Centenary Edition of Beckett's complete plays: "I am always deeply puzzled when people say of Beckett, 'Oh, he's so difficult!'—or avant-garde, or complex, or ambiguous. It is the profoundest nonsense, for Beckett is perhaps the most naturalistic playwright I know of, as well as the clearest and least obscure."
From my interview with Barry McGovern of the Gate Theatre, who plays Vladimir:Me: So where are you now? Pennslyv—
Barry: Pittsburgh. What did you say? Tasmania?
[Later.]
Me: What's the set like? What will people see when they walk into the theater?
Barry: They won't see anything until the curtain goes up.
Me: I guess that's true.
[Later.]
Barry: People will see, you know, 'A country road, a tree, evening,' as the opening stage directions go.
Me: Is there any evidence of the country road?
Barry: No, it just is a country road. There's no evidence of it. It's just—space."
Waiting for Godot, Gate Theatre of Dublin at the Moore Theatre, 292-2787, Nov 8—12.
