Waiting for Godot
Stories and reflections from actors across the world who have all played the same part about what the roles mean to them.
This week: Vladimir and Estragon from Waiting for Godot.
Stories and reflections of actors from across the world who have all played the same parts. They tell us what the roles mean and what the parts mean to them. This time it's the turn of the pair of tramps in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot: Vladimir and Estragon.
It's a play where famously "nothing happens". Vladimir and Estragon are bowler-hatted tramps standing on a country road waiting for someone called Godot. The play divides audiences - but its slapstick humour, staccato dialogue, and existential themes have made it one of the most acclaimed plays of the twentieth century.
Vladimir and Estragon have travelled the world and the play has been performed in moments of crisis, from New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to Sarajevo in the Balkans War.
The two main characters are like partners, friends, enemies... And Beckett's precise directions for the play have provoked questions about who can play Vladimir and Estragon.
So pull a rock, sit by a tree, take off your boots... this is Roleplay.
Featuring Tweedy aka Alan Digweed, Aaron Monaghan, Marty Rea, Bill Paterson, Velibor Topi膰, J Kyle Manzay, Silent Faces Theatre (Josie Underwood, Jack Wakely and Cordelia Stevenson) and Sophia Almaz and Oleksiy Dashkovsky from Theatre UZHIK in Uzhhorod, Ukraine.
Produced by Sam Grist and Camellia Sinclair for 麻豆社 Audio in Bristol
Mixed by Michael Harrison
Acknowledgements:
From the Fifties: Waiting for Godot, 麻豆社 Home Service, 5 Feb 1962
Play by Samuel Beckett
Producer - Robin Midgley
Vladimir - Nigel Stock
Estragon - Kenneth Griffith
The Boy - Terry Raven
Waiting for Godot, 麻豆社 Archive, 5 Sep 1981
Play by Samuel Beckett
Director - Richard Callanan
Vladimir - Max Wall
Estragon - Leo McKern
Archive:
Masterworks: Waiting for Godot, 麻豆社 Radio 4, 22nd March 1977
Druid Theatre, Trailer Waiting for Godot, November 2016
Points West Evening News, 麻豆社 One, 13th February 2019
Reporting Scotland, 麻豆社 One Scotland, 21st September 2015
News Special: Hurricane Katrina, 麻豆社 One, 4th September 2005
Newsnight, 麻豆社 Two, 8th Sep 2005
News & Notes, NPR, 9th Nov 2007
Godot is a Woman - teaser, Silent Faces, 7th June 2022
Artsnight, 麻豆社 Two, 31st July 2015
Still Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo, 麻豆社 Radio 4, 21st August 2015
Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo, 麻豆社 Radio 4, 20th March 1994
1992 Sarajevo, 麻豆社 News Archive
Waiting for What?, 麻豆社 Network Radio, 14th April 1961
Theater-studio "Uzhik" video, 23rd October 2022
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Broadcasts
- Thu 2 Mar 2023 11:30麻豆社 Radio 4
- Mon 6 Mar 2023 16:00麻豆社 Radio 4