NAT IONAL QUALIFICAT IONS CURRICULUM SUPPORT
Drama
Waiting for Godot
Learning and Teaching Guide
[HIGHER]
Charles Barron

First published 1998
Electronic version 2001
© Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum 1998
This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part for educational purposes by
educational establishments in Scotland provided that no profit accrues at any stage.
Acknowledgement
Learning and Teaching Scotland gratefully acknowledge this contribution to the
Higher Still support programme for Drama.
ISBN 1 85955 811 9
Learning and Teaching Scotland
Gardyne Road
Dundee
DD5 1NY
www.LTScotland.com
CONTENTS
Introduction
1
Section A - Overall directorial interpretation and dramatic commentary
2
Act One
Section 1 (Vladimir and Estragon alone, pp. 9-21)
Section 2 (Pozzo and Lucky, pp. 21-48)
Section 3 (The Boy, pp. 48-54)
Act Two Section 1 (Vladimir and Estragon alone, pp. 57-77)
Section 2 (Pozzo and Lucky, pp. 77-89)
Section 3 (The Boy, pp. 89-94)
Section B - Directory of acting pieces
2
6
10
13
17
20
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INTRODUCTION
In 1993 Scottish CCC published a series of Higher Drama background information
packs about Waiting for Godot and eight other prescribed plays. Under the impetus of
the Higher Still development programme, these packs are now supplemented by a
series of learning and teaching guides to the prescribed plays. The new material has
been written both as a resource for teachers and as a study aid for students working on
Unit 2 (Study of a Text in its Theatrical Context) of Higher Drama.
Section A provides a list of the features of each key scene or episode in Waiting for
Godot which would be important in any production of the play. It also provides space
for the student to record why each key scene would be important in his/her intended
production.
Section B provides a directory of possible acting pieces in terms of casting, suitable
length and specific challenges to the actor.
All textual references are to the recommended edition of the text (Waiting for Godot,
Samuel Beckett, 1956), which is published by Faber and Faber in the series ff Plays.
Other resources for teaching this unit include the following:
• The Arrangements for Drama published in 1997 containing detail of content,
suggested learning and teaching approaches, guidance on assessment and unit
descriptors.
• The Subject Guide for Drama, the first instalment of which was published in 1997,
includes guidance on learning and teaching in general, bi-level teaching,
differentiation, workshop approaches to the text, health and safety guidelines, and
ensuring appropriate access for students with special education needs.
• The National Assessment Bank packages published in 1998 for each unit of Drama
include all checklists, task sheets, marking instructions and guidance necessary to
carry out the internal assessment of each unit.
• A video published in 1998 exemplifies standards of practical performance for
Investigative Drama (Unit 1) and for Acting in both Study of a Text in its
Theatrical Context (Unit 2) and Contemporary Scottish Theatre (Unit 3).
DR AM A
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SECTION A
ACT ONE Section 1
(pages 9-21)
Why would Act One Section 1 be important in any
production of the play?
Provides context of the play and gives background to the action/storyline
• We learn immediately that the events of the play are to be, apparently, trivial.
• Estragon and Vladimir have been together a long time and have come down in the
world.
• The relationship between these two characters is hard to define. They are
constantly arguing but they clearly need each other’s support and even affection.
• There is an air of menace, of fear and of expectation in the vague references to
casual beatings, suicide and the mysterious Godot.
• Both characters suffer chronic pain or discomfort.
Begins plot
• We learn that Estragon and Vladimir are waiting to meet Godot - on his
instructions.
• Apart from that there is little in the way of plot in the conventional theatrical sense.
• Instead, tiny incidents, the ordinary events of everyday life, occupy the characters taking off a boot, going to the toilet, eating.
Introduces key characters
• Estragon and Vladimir are the central characters of the play. They are poor, like
down-and-outs, but their speech does not suggest that they are uneducated. Both
are knowledgeable.
• They enjoy discussions and arguments of an intellectual nature.
• They are very alike. One may seem more irritable and the other more pathetic at
one moment, but it isn’t long before they reverse roles.
• Although in productions they are usually dressed as tramps, this is not specified by
Beckett. He does, though, describe them as wearing bowler hats (as do the other
two main characters of the play, Pozzo and Lucky).
• Their plan to commit suicide together does not sound real. It is as if they are
playing with the idea. In fact, much of what they do and say has a theatrical
quality.
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Establishes central themes and issues
• There are numerous themes which run through the play, often interlinked, recurring
again and again.
• The central theme is, of course, the waiting for Godot. At times, they seem to be
looking forward to his coming eagerly; at other times they fear it.
• Another recurring theme is suffering: Estragon’s feet and Vladimir’s bladder are
important in this section.
• Religion, too, seems to be important – the story of the two thieves, salvation and
damnation.
• The idea of suicide is introduced very early in the play: a missed opportunity to
jump together from the top of the Eiffel Tower in the 1890s. It becomes a major
preoccupation when Estragon and Vladimir discuss the suitability of the tree for
hanging themselves.
• The theatricality of the play is emphasised, as we are reminded from time to time
that this is a play and not real life.
• Estragon and Vladimir talk about being old. They say they have nothing to look
forward to - except death. They recall happier days in the distant past. They suffer
infirmities associated with old age.
Why would Act One Section 1 be importan t in your
production of the play?
• As director, how will you choose to present the characters? Their dress will place
them, however roughly, in some period. It may also say something about their
nationality and class.
• What are your own directorial concepts? How will this section introduce them?
• How will you want the audience to feel about Estragon and Vladimir? Will you
want them to feel superior to these down-and-outs getting so worked up about
trivial incidents? Or will you want them to identify with the characters’ problems?
• How will you want the relationship between Estragon and Vladimir to be portrayed
by your actors?
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CO M M ENT AR Y
Notes
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ACT ONE Section 2
(pages 21 - 48)
Why would Act One Section 2 be important in any
production of the play?
Develops the plot
• Estragon and Vladimir at first take Pozzo to be Godot.
• The arrival of Pozzo introduces several new elements – authority, cruelty and
violence.
• The isolation of Estragon and Vladimir is broken by this intrusion from the outside
world.
• Lucky’s unhappy situation makes Estragon’s and Vladimir’s seem less painful.
• The apparently helpless victim, Lucky, is capable of vicious cruelty himself.
• The falling over and the violence are funny on a knockabout level. At the same
time there is a deeply tragic side to them.
Develops central themes and issues
• The central theme, the waiting for Godot, takes on an extra layer of confusion
when we realise that Estragon and Vladimir wouldn’t even recognise him if he
came. They think Pozzo is Godot.
• The theme of suffering is developed through Lucky’s wounds and torture.
• We are reminded even more strongly that we are in a theatre by Pozzo’s ‘stagey’
preparations for speaking and by Lucky’s dance.
• There are more religious references – crucify, good angel, &c.
• The theme of old age is developed in Pozzo’s tendency to lose things and in
Estragon’s and Vladimir’s forgetfulness. Lucky’s confused speech suggests the
onset of dementia.
Develops characters and relationships
• Pozzo’s character is more clearly defined than the others’. He is a kind of parody of
a landed gentleman.
• Lucky is hardly credible as a human being. He is like a puppet or a helpless animal
kept as a pet by Pozzo.
• Estragon and Vladimir show genuine concern for Lucky’s plight – until he attacks
them.
• Lucky’s long speech changes our view of him, making him seem like a demented
academic rather than a slave.
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Why would Act One Section 2 be important in your
production of the play?
• How does this scene develop your overall interpretation of the play?
• As the director how will you show the nature of the relationship between Pozzo
and Lucky?
• What effect will you hope to achieve from the knockabout comic elements? How
will you achieve this?
• How will you handle the very long speech by Lucky? How will you avoid it
seeming nothing but nonsense?
• In directing the actor playing Pozzo, how cruel will you allow him to be?
• What development in character will you want to show in the performances of
Estragon and Vladimir?
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CO M M ENT AR Y
Notes
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ACT ONE Section 3
(pages 48 - 54)
Why would Act One Section 3 be important in any
production of the play?
Development of plot
• At last there is some reality to the existence of Godot. He cannot merely be a
figment of the imaginations of Estragon and Vladimir, after all.
• The Boy, if he is telling the truth, reveals a little about Godot: he keeps goats and
sheep; he has servants.
• Estragon and Vladimir seem almost to expect the Boy to appear with Godot’s
excuse.
Further illustration of central themes and issues
• Religion: ‘You’re not going to compare yourself with Christ?’ ‘… they crucified
quick.’
• Theatricality: ‘The light suddenly fails. In a moment it is night. The moon rises at
back, mounts in the sky, stands still...’
• Suffering: ‘It’s the other foot!’ ‘I’m cold.’
• Suicide: ‘Do you remember the day I threw myself into the Rhone?’ ‘Pity we
haven’t got a bit of rope.’
• Fear: ‘Are you mad? We must take cover.’
• Old age: ‘There’s no good harking back on that.’ ‘It’s not worth while now.’
Development of character and relationships
• Again we see the shifting balance in their relationship as first one, then the other
appears the stronger.
• Estragon owes his life to Vladimir, and yet he wonders if they wouldn’t have been
better off alone.
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Why would Act One Section 3 be important in your
production of the play?
• How does this scene develop your overall interpretation of the play?
• In your interpretation, how do Estragon and Vladimir treat the Boy? How will you
have him react to them?
• How will you want the mood to change after the exit of the Boy? How will you
bring this about?
• How will you use the actors’ positions and moves to create maximum impact from
the last few moments of the act?
Notes
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ACT TWO Section 1
(pages 57 - 77)
Why would Act Two Section 1 be important in any
production of the play?
Development of plot
• The tree has ‘four or five leaves’.
• Estragon has again spent the night elsewhere.
• Vladimir’s bladder is again an early subject of conversation.
• Estragon can scarcely remember yesterday’s events.
• Estragon’s boots have apparently changed in size overnight.
• The hats routine.
• Estragon’s conviction that they are surrounded by hostile forces.
• They trade insults viciously – but it seems almost as if they do it only for the ‘fun’
of making up afterwards. It is a variation on their game of playing Pozzo insulting
Lucky.
Further illustration of central themes and issues
• Religion: ‘To every man his little cross.’ ‘Do you think God sees me? … God have
pity on me.’
• Theatricality: They act out the parts of Pozzo and Lucky. They joke about the
audience. The climax of their list of insults is ‘Crritic’. They each ‘do the tree’.
They discuss their dialogue – ‘that wasn’t such a bad little canter’. There is more
comic staggering and falling about.
• Suffering: Estragon’s beating by ten thugs – if we can believe him. The wound
Lucky gave Estragon is festering. On the other hand Vladimir’s bladder has
behaved better overnight, and Estragon’s boots (or his new boots) fit him without
hurting.
• Suicide: Estragon’s vehement ‘No no, no laces, no laces!’ may refer to the
possibility of suicide. He says Vladimir should just kill him, ‘like the other’.
Estragon’s dream is of falling from a high place – like the Eiffel Tower? Or the
banks of the Rhone?
• Fear: They believe there are hostile crowds on both sides of them.
• Waiting: There are even more references than in the other sections to the fact that
they are waiting for Godot.
• Old age: They are forgetful and confused.
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Development of character and relationships
There is little sign of development in their relationship, but we do learn a little more
about it:
• They say they have been together for fifty years.
• They have been elsewhere – in the Macon, for example, as well as up the Eiffel
Tower.
• They embrace warmly.
• They trade insults with vigour but without lasting rancour.
• In spite of occasional arguments, they do agree about almost everything.
Why would Act Two Scene 1 be impor tant in your
production of the play?
• How will you want the audience to react to Vladimir’s song?
• In your interpretation, is the hats routine purely comic, or would you intend it to
have some other significance? How will you bring this out?
• In your interpretation, are the hostile crowds off-stage real or imaginary? How will
you make this plain to the audience?
• Will you want your actors to make the trading of insults appear deeply felt or a
piece of play-acting by Estragon and Vladimir?
• How will you direct the scene where Estragon and Vladimir act out the roles of
Pozzo and Lucky? As an accurate version? As a parody? As a comic routine?
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ACT TWO Section 2
(pages 77 - 89)
Why would Act Two Section 2 be important in any
production of the play?
Development of plot
• The entry of Pozzo and Lucky apparently echoes Act One.
• Pozzo is now blind and Lucky is dumb.
• Estragon and Vladimir treat Pozzo and Lucky with extreme violence.
• Amidst the tragedy, there is more rough knockabout humour.
• Pozzo is on his way to the Board. The stage, perhaps?
Further illustration of central themes and issues
• Religion: Estragon uses the names Cain and Abel to try to identify Pozzo.
• Theatricality: ‘I begin to weary of this motif.’
• Suffering: The pain inflicted on Pozzo and Lucky. The disabilities now suffered by
Pozzo and Lucky.
• Suicide: The inability (at first) of anyone to get up when they fall down.
• Waiting: Vladimir’s long (though interrupted) speech makes waiting sound like a
purpose in life, with an almost spiritual element: ‘Yes, in this immense confusion
one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come … or for night to fall.
We have kept our appointment … how many people can boast as much?’ Later, it
becomes superbly comic: ‘Pozzo What is he waiting for? Vladimir What are you
waiting for? Estragon I’m waiting for Godot.’ (p. 87)
• Old age: Pozzo and Lucky have each lost faculties.
Development of character and relationships
• Pozzo is now a victim rather than a bully, but he encourages the others to hurt
Lucky.
• Estragon and Vladimir take full advantage of the chance to hurt Pozzo and Lucky.
• Vladimir has the play’s most coherent and poetic speech, interrupted though it is by
Estragon and Pozzo. (pp. 79 - 81)
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CO M M ENT AR Y
Why would Act Two Section 2 be important in your
production of the play?
• How will you want the audience to feel, seeing Pozzo now disabled and helpless?
• How will you direct Vladimir in his long, philosophical speech?
• How will you want the falling over to be different from the stumbling and falling in
previous scenes?
• How will you make sure that the silent Lucky isn’t overlooked by the audience
throughout the scene?
Notes
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ACT TWO Section 3
(pages 89 - 94)
Why would Act Two Section 3 be important in any
production of the play?
Development of plot
• Estragon and Vladimir have doubts about Pozzo’s blindness and even about his
existence.
• Estragon’s feet hurt again.
• Vladimir is again in philosophical mood.
• The Boy appears again but denies that he has been here before.
• We learn that Godot has a white beard, if the Boy is telling the truth, of course.
This information makes Vladimir pray, ‘Christ have mercy upon us!’
• Estragon’s boots come off easily.
• Night falls.
• Estragon and Vladimir again consider suicide – but they haven’t got a rope.
Further illustration of central themes and issues
• Religion: The Boy’s description of Godot does suggest a kind of God-like figure.
Vladimir may think so, since he follows the description with the apparently sincere
‘Christ have mercy upon us!’
• Theatricality: As at the end of Act 1, night falls with unrealistic theatricality.
• Suffering: Estragon’s feet hurt and he can’t get his boots off.
• Suicide: They discuss using Estragon’s belt to hang themselves, but it isn’t strong
enough. They resolve to bring a rope tomorrow.
• Waiting: They decide to go. But, of course, they don’t. They must wait for
tomorrow when, perhaps, Godot will come.
• Old age: There is nothing to look forward to except death, and they talk of
hastening it by committing suicide.
Development of character and relationships
• Vladimir is more aggressive towards the Boy. He anticipates his message.
• They again consider parting but decide on suicide instead.
• They are perhaps more determined to commit suicide than they were at the end of
Act One.
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Why would Act Two Section 3 be important in your
production of the play?
• How does this last scene conclude your overall directorial interpretation of the
play?
• How do you want the audience to feel at the end of the play? What message do you
want them to take away?
• How will you direct the ending? How funny will you make the trousers falling
down? Do the characters find it funny?
• What mood will you want to create in the final sequence? How will you achieve it?
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DI R EC TO RY O F AC T I N G P I EC E S
SECTION B
Acting roles
Vladimir and Estragon
Demanding roles, covering every acting style from knockabout comedy to poetic
tragedy. The differences between the two are slight in the writing, and actors must
draw on their own resources of voice and body to differentiate between them. Timing
is crucially important, since Beckett demands so many pauses of considerable length,
but the actors must not allow the theatrical tension to drop.
The characters are presumably in their sixties, if we are to trust their reminiscences
about the past. They are educated and fluent in their speech.
They must be able to switch suddenly between anger, remorse, violence and comedy.
Most demanding of all is the need to allow the audience to be constantly aware that
they are, in fact, only acting.
Pozzo
At first sight, he is a bluff, self-confident landowner, but his inherent cruelty and
ruthlessness make him almost impossible to portray as having any human qualities.
Nevertheless, there is something almost likeable in his tendency to lose things, his rule
about smoking only one pipeful of tobacco, his pride in seeming younger than his age,
and his delight in his baldness. His loss of sight in Act Two turns him into a pitiful
creature, but he is still as cruel as before.
Lucky
He spends most of his time on stage silent and still. However, his sudden outbursts of
violence must be quite menacing and his long speech must grip the audience in spite
of, or perhaps because of, its apparent incoherence. His age is made much of by Pozzo
– he is well over 60. Like the others, he is given no dialect by Beckett, and the long
speech should have a kind of academic or legalistic sound to it in spite of its apparent
meaninglessness.
The Boy
His brief appearances show him to be nervous and unsure of how to behave towards
these men. We do not know if he is lying when he denies having been here before.
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DI R EC TO RY O F AC T I N G P I EC E S
Recommended acting pieces
Page reference:
9 - 16 (Act One)
Opening line:
‘Nothing to be done’
Closing line:
‘STOP IT!’
Casting: 2 male
Characters: Estragon and Vladimir
Approximate length: 11 minutes
Comments: The relationship between the characters is established and the range
of their styles is introduced, from the frustration and anger with their physical
problems to their bleak views on death. There is humour, too, both in their
irritability with each other and in their jokiness about the audience.
Page reference:
21 - 28 (Act One)
Opening line:
‘Nothing to be done.’
Closing line:
‘I must be getting on. Thank you for your society.’
Casting: 3 male
Characters: Pozzo, Estragon and Vladimir (plus Lucky read in)
Approximate length: 7 minutes
Comments: A visual scene – with much to be made of Pozzo’s treatment of
Lucky and the tragi-comedy of Lucky’s problems with his burdens. The contrast
between Pozzo’s self-confidence and the anxieties of Estragon and Vladimir is
the significant theme of the scene. Pozzo can be played for comedy, though the
cruelty he displays to Lucky must be emphasised as well.
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DI R EC TO RY O F AC T I N G P I EC E S
Page reference:
39 - 47 (Act One)
Opening line:
‘Gentlemen, you have been … civil to me’
Closing line:
‘Such is life.’
Casting: 4 male
Characters: Pozzo, Lucky, Estragon and Vladimir
Approximate length: 8 minutes
Comments: Lucky is the central character in this scene, with his long incoherent
speech which must, nonetheless, convince the audience that it has meaning. He
must dance, too, in a pathetic parody of entertainment. The other characters have
a kind of comic act, thinking, and preparing Lucky for his performance. There
must be a well-choreographed struggle at the end of Lucky’s speech. The tone
veers between the comic and the touching. It is just feasible that Lucky could be
played by an actress.
Page reference:
48 - 54 (Act One)
Opening line:
‘That passed the time.’
Closing line:
‘Yes, let’s go.’
Casting: 2 male
Characters: Estragon and Vladimir (plus the Boy read in)
Approximate length: 7 minutes
Comments: A scene with a bleak, tragic feel to it. There is a flurry of excitement
in the encounter with the Boy, but otherwise the two central characters are
settling in to their habitual sense of hopelessness. The pace of the scene has a
dying fall to it and the ending has a harsh finality.
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Page reference:
63 - 70 (Act Two)
Opening line:
‘Help me!’
Closing line:
‘Bye bye …’
Casting: 2 male
Characters: Estragon and Vladimir
Approximate length: 8 minutes
Comments: A good scene for getting reaction going between the two men. They
get quite excited in their attempts to converse, but the mood changes as they
struggle to remember the previous day’s events and again as they cope with the
realities of eating and dressing. It ends in a moment of gentle comradeship as
Vladimir sings Estragon to sleep.
Page reference:
71 - 77 (Act Two)
Opening line:
‘Let’s go.’
Closing line:
‘On me! On me! Pity! On me!’
Casting: 2 male
Characters: Estragon and Vladimir
Approximate length: 6 minutes
Comments: A test of acting ability for the two characters, as they imitate Lucky
and Pozzo and then have a moment of terror as the ‘enemy’ approach. They
insult each other and finally make it up. On top of all this they have an intricate
silent routine with hats, which must be skilfully timed and performed.
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Page reference:
Opening line:
Closing line:
77 - 86 (Act Two)
‘Gogo!’
‘But it is not for nothing I have lived through this long day
and I can assure you it is very near the end of its repertory.’
Casting: 3 male
Characters: Pozzo, Estragon and Vladimir (plus Lucky read in)
Approximate length: 13 minutes
Comments: A scene of great contrasts, with much falling down and writhing on
the ground on the one hand, and Vladimir’s poetic speeches on the other. The
discussions between Estragon and Vladimir on whether or not to help the stricken
Pozzo are simultaneously funny and almost unbearably moving.
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