During the 1953 world premiere of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist masterpiece, at Paris’ Théâtre de Babylone, the curtain came down about 40 minutes into the first act as audience members whistled and hooted derisively. While the critics were accepting of the play, it pre-sold few tickets for the American debut tour three years later in Washington and Philadelphia, prompting a move to Miami’s Coconut Grove Playhouse for a two-week run starring Bert Lahr and Tom Ewell. Promoted as “the laugh sensation of two continents,” it was greeted by vacationers with bafflement and described as a play where nothing happens.
The reaction was so predictable that cabbies waited outside the theater for early exiters. Not surprisingly, the New York engagement was canceled. “Nothing happens, that’s the thing.
It’ll be interesting to see, when we put this up in front of an audience for the first time, how they respond. It’s fun to make an audience uncomfortable because it makes them lean in and pay attention,” says who plays Estragon opposite as Vladimir in the new production running Nov. 6 through Dec.
16. It is directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett and co-stars her husband Conor Lovett, as well as Adam Stein. On a country road by a leafless tree, vagrants Estragon and Vladimir wait for an enigmatic figure named Godot.
In time, they are met by Pozzo (Conor Lovett), who bullies his servant, Lucky (Stein). Later, a boy (Lincoln Bonilla/Jack McSherry), who works as a goatherd for Godo.