Estragon notifies Vladimir of his most recent troubles: he spent the previous night lying in a ditch and received a beating from a number of anonymous assailants. The play opens with two bedraggled acquaintances, Vladimir and Estragon, meeting by a leafless tree. In a poll conducted by the British Royal National Theatre in 1998/99, it was voted the 'most significant English-language play of the 20th century'.
The English-language version premiered in London in 1955. The premiere, directed by Roger Blin, was on 5 January 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone, Paris. The original French text was composed between 9 October 1948 and 29 January 1949.
Waiting for Godot is Beckett's translation of his own original French-language play, En attendant Godot, and is subtitled (in English only) ' a tragicomedy in two acts'. Waiting for Godot ( / ˈ ɡ ɒ d oʊ/ GOD-oh) is a play by Samuel Beckett in which two characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives. Waiting for Godot, staging by Otomar Krejca, Avignon Festival, 1978
