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Waiting for Godot

Also Known As En attendant Godot Original French title, first published and performed under this title before Beckett's own English translation.
Drama and Theatre

A tragicomedy in two acts by the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, written in French between 1948 and 1949 as En attendant Godot, first published in 1952 and first performed in Paris in January 1953. Two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, wait beside a bare tree for a man named Godot who never arrives, filling the time with vaudeville routines, quarrels and reconciliations while the master Pozzo and his servant Lucky pass through twice. Beckett resisted allegorical readings of the absent Godot, later telling an actor that he regretted the name for the theological associations it invited, and insisted the play's meaning lay in its own bleak comedy rather than any hidden key. In a 1998 poll conducted by London's Royal National Theatre, it was voted the most significant English-language play of the twentieth century, and it remains Beckett's best-known work. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Classification
Audience
General 1
Original Language
French 1
Composed, From (Year)
1948 to 1949 1
Composed, From (Year)
from 1952 1
FAQs

Did Samuel Beckett write Waiting for Godot in English or French?

Written in French; the English version is Beckett's own adaptation.

He wrote it in French, as En attendant Godot, between October 1948 and January 1949. The English-language version is Beckett's own adaptation of the original, and it premiered in London in 1955. When he translated the dialogue, he introduced Dubliners' idiom, such as the dialect word dudeen for Pozzo's pipe, so the English text is more colourful than the French original.
Connections

Authored By

Source Waiting for Godot (Wikipedia)

In Genre

Tragicomedy, Genres
Source Waiting for Godot (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases

Original Language

Also in Language Atlas: the original language of this subject.

Originated In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Source Waiting for Godot (Wikipedia)tier 2
Sources
1. Waiting for Godot (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)
  • Lead, second sentence
    It was written (1948-1949), first published (1952), and first performed (1953) in French as En attendant Godot.
  • Lead, 1998 poll
    In a public poll conducted by London's Royal National Theatre in the year 1998, Waiting for Godot was voted as 'the most significant English-language play of the 20th century.'
  • Lead
    Waiting for Godot is a play by Irish playwright and author Samuel Beckett.
  • Original language statement
    A tragicomedy in two acts by the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, written in French between 1948 and 1949 as En attendant Godot, first published in 1952 and first performed in Paris in January 1953.
  • Authored By: Samuel Beckett, Lead, first sentence
    Waiting for Godot is a play by Irish playwright and author Samuel Beckett.
  • In Genre: Tragicomedy, Lead, subtitle
    Subtitled 'tragicomedy in two acts', it is his best-known literary work and is regarded by critics as 'one of the most enigmatic plays of modern literature'.
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