Waiting for Godot, the renowned play by Samuel Beckett, is being taken on its longest ever tour of Ireland.
Organised by Dublin’s Gate Theatre to mark its 80th anniversary, the show will travel across 32 counties to play in 40 different venues between September and October of this year. This previous record for a touring play in Ireland was 8 venues in 7 weeks so this new show really takes the biscuit!
The theatre group’s director, Michael Colgan said that the tour “will require huge amounts of stamina and energy by the actors. One advantage is we won’t have to carry huge sets from venue to venue.”
This venture is an interesting choice by Colgan and his group because Beckett’s plays can be quite bleak, and waiting for Godot is certainly obscure (it’s about two people waiting for somebody called Godot who never actually arrives).
Still, Colgan has said that Beckett “moving up the scale in terms of popularity”, and that “a survey among theatre goers in the UK found Waiting for Godot was their favourite play after Death of A Salesman.”
Perhaps if the tour proves a success in Ireland the team will bring it across the water to Old Blighty.
Best of luck to them!
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