Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (1953). One of the most influential plays of the twentieth century, Beckett’s Absurdist masterpiece of two clowns waiting for the “coming” of the enigmatic “Godot” has been performed in numerous guises across the world by professionals, amateurs and students. Full-length play. Cast: men.

Performance history in South Africa

First produced professionally in South Africa by Leonard Schach on his return from an overseas excursion in 1955. It opened at the Little Theatre in Cape Town with Gavin Haughton as Vladimir and Alec Bell as Estragon, also starring Donald Inskip and Gordon Roberts, decor by Cecil Pym. The play was also presented at the Hofmeyr Theatre and then taken on a tour of several country towns in South Africa under Brian Brooke’s management. Schach claims that Cape Town audiences saw it before any other English language audiences, outside of London (Schach, 1996). Schach then collaborated with Leon Gluckman and Taubie Kushlick as co-producers to stage it once again, this time at the Technical College Hall in 1956, starring Alec Bell, Gerrit Wessels and Gavin Haughton. NTO did it in 1959, directed by Tone Brulin with Brulin, David Herbert, Gabriel Bayman and Gerrit Wessels [??*] Other famous local productions were a mulitracial one at The Space in Cape Town in 197*, featuring John Kani and Pieter-Dirk Uys; a Baxter Theatre Production directed by Donald Howarth in 1980 with John Kani, Winston Ntshona, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Peter Piccolo and Silamour Philander.

A PACOFS production was directed by Bill Smuts for PACT, 1970. Three black and white photographs of Neels Coetzee, William Egan, George Barnes and Leon Cloete in scenes from the PACOFS production of Waiting for Godot. Directed by Bill Smuts, 1970 ([NELM] [Collection: Performing Arts Council Orange Free State (PACOFS)]: 2009. 67. 1. 2. 49).

Performed by the Wits University Players on Tuesday 6 July 1971 starring John Coulton, John Jackson, Malcolm Rosenfeld, Bill Stevens, Johnny Levin. Directed by Frank Morton. (TECON).

PACT Drama, November 1991, directed by Dieter Reible, the cast consisted of Michael McCabe as Estragon, Dale Cutts as Vladimir, Louis van Niekerk as Pozzo and James Borthwick portrayed Lucky.

Staged in the Thabong Theatre at The Civic in Johannesburg in June 1998, directed by Maralin Vanrenen, with James Ngcobo, Russel Savadier, André-Jacques van der Merwe and Christopher Kindo.

Translations and adaptations

Locally it has also had an enormous influence on the nature of South African theatre, inter alia on the work of Athol Fugard (see Boesman and Lena for example), Bartho Smit, André P. Brink and Charles J. Fourie. (See Absurdist Theatre in Part 3 Section 1: Terminology*?)

a workshopped version with the all-black cast of James Mthoba and Sam Williams, directed by Benjy Francis (Durban, Soweto and in the Upstairs Theatre at the Market Theatre, 1976) and Lara Foot-Newton’s production for the 2001 Grahamstown Festival (with Seputla Sebogodi, Lionel Newton, Robert Whitehead and Bheki Vilakazi). Duckrabbit (Lara Foot-Newton & Gerhard Marx) se Karoo weergawe van Waiting for Godot.

Adapted and translated into Afrikaans by Suseth Brits: Afspraak met Godot.

Sources

Inskip, 1977. p 119.

PACT Info (1), 1991-1992.

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