Waiting for Godot

The Gate Theatre of Dublin presents Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. As The Irish Times puts it, “The Gate production is definitive, not just in Irish but in global terms. It is probably the closest we will ever get to the perfect official Godot.” The Gate Theater first presented this Godot in 1988 at the request of Samuel Beckett himself, who recommended that Walter Asmus direct. Asmus had been Beckett’s assistant director on the famous Schiller Theatre (Berlin) production. Over fifteen years, three Beckett Festivals – Dublin (1991), New York (1996) and London (1999) – and nearly two decades of touring, the Gate’s production of Godot has a rich and growing history of accolades and acclaim.

London’s The Times described the April 2006 performance at the Barbican as “more accomplished and no less fresh” than in 1999. The Daily Telegraph said, “…Habit certainly hasn’t deadened either this production, or the potent power of Beckett’s bleakly comic masterpiece. More than 50 years after its premiere, it still seems startlingly fresh, original, strong and true.” The review also reported, “…though Godot was once famously described as a play in which nothing happens, twice, there was no mistaking the appreciation of an audience who seemed to be hanging on to every word and rightly finding much of the evening delightfully comic.”

The performances at the Skirball Center – like those at the Barbican – are part of a world tour celebrating Beckett’s 100th birthday in 2006.