“Waiting for Godot” to be performed on the Tom Sutherland Stage from May 24-June 16, 2024
Considered by theater critics and literary scholars to be the most influential playwright of the 20th century, Samuel Beckett’s watershed play, “Waiting for Godot,” ushered in a new age of theater. Still generating both controversy and popular acclaim 35 years after his death, Beckett’s seminal work is a postmodern tragicomedy, pushing the boundaries of image and sound, genres and conventions, meaning and form.
Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, are lost souls abandoned on the highway of life. Kindred spirits, the play is first and foremost about their lifelong friendship. It’s about what The New Yorker recently described as “the pyrotechnics of living together—argumentation and consolation, recrimination and love.” The action is profound in its stark simplicity. They spend their days on “this bitch of an earth” waiting for someone named Godot whom they hardly know, yet whom they hope will come and save them from oblivion. While waiting, they contemplate or try numerous inadequate remedies or ways of passing the time: light diversions, turning toward nature, vaudeville routines and, above all, many language games featuring Beckett’s masterful blend of poetry and humor.
Director Laura Jones has studied and experimented with the staging of Beckett’s drama for 40 years. “Beckett’s work confronts us with the most persistent philosophical questions about life, being, death, meaning and language,” she says. “Its themes resonate remarkably with today’s world. We all live together in uncertain times. We all need relationships that allow us to prop each other up against an often cold, comfortless world of radical uncertainty. And I would argue that a sense of humor is what keeps us going on when our daily existence seems out of our control.”
“Waiting for Godot” tickets are available now:
- Ticket prices: $30/adult, $25/senior, $8/student, $6/quest card (contact the box office for details about this rate)
- Tickets can be purchased at basbleu.org or by calling the box office at 970.498.8949
- There will be a pay-what-you-will/preview performance on Friday, May 24