Philippine E-Journals

Of Being and Samuel Beckett's Godot

Hermenegildo Encarnacion

 

Abstract:

Samuel Beckett launched his play Waiting for Godot in 1952 and dropped a veritable bomb on the unsuspecting and unprepared premiere-attending audience in the Theatre de Babylone, Paris. During the intermission, a fist fight took place in the lobby between the supporters and the opponents of the play to dramatize the power inherent in the play itself. Since then, the play, originally written and performed in French, has been translated into some twenty languages with more than three hundred performances in Paris, has been received enthusiastically in Frankfurt, Rome, Helsinski, London, New York, Finland, Argentina, Ireland, Japan, and most recently, Manila. Translated by Rolando S. Tinio into Pilipino as Pagputi ng Uwak, Manila audiences variedly' reacted to two performances, March 4 and 10 at the Ateneo Padre Faura Auditorium as presented by the Ateneo Experimental Theatre.