Course Details

Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is widely held to be the most important play of the 20th century. This very funny and very sad tragicomedy is the story of two apparently homeless men waiting on a country road for someone who never arrives. Two other men happen by and stop for a while before leaving. A glib, early reviewer described it as a two-act drama “in which nothing happens—twice.” But whether something “happens” depends on how we define “happen.” We will read, discuss, and watch excerpts from recorded performances of the play, which paved the way for much of post-World War II theatre, such as Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. (Waiting for Godot will be performed at the Shakespeare Theatre  in spring 2018.)