After 53 years, the Guthrie is 'Waiting for Godot' again
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The last time the Guthrie Theater presented “Waiting for Godot” — one of the most influential and beloved plays in theater history — was in 1973, only 20 years after it premiered in Paris.
Artistic director Joseph Haj said he has wanted to mount the modernist tragicomedy by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for decades.
“It's a hugely important play and a hugely influential play,” said Haj, who is directing the play for the first time. “It's just been on my bucket list for a really long time.”
“Waiting for Godot” opens Thursday on the Guthrie’s Wurtele Thrust Stage, kicking off the Minneapolis theater’s 2026-27 season. Starring are Guthrie veteran Jimmy Kieffer (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The History Plays”) and David Strathairn (of “Good Night, and Good Luck” fame) in his Guthrie debut.
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While it seems there is never a bad moment to put on “Godot,” Haj said he finds the play, which Beckett wrote shortly after World War II, particularly poignant this year.
“Beckett writes this after the collapse of the European order, where people are questioning everything, including their own faith and religion because of what that war wrought,” Haj said. “This play sits in the hallway between the breakdown of systems and no new agreed-upon institutions and systems that we can all agree are reasonably good.”
Beckett originally wrote “Godot” in French. Beckett had settled in Paris in the 1930s, shortly after traveling through Germany as the Nazis rose to power. In 1940, he joined the French Resistance — what he deemed “boy scout stuff” — to fight the German occupation, for which the French government awarded him a Croix de Guerre.
When the play opened in Paris in 1953, and then in English in London in 1955, it caused an uproar, confusing audiences and critics alike with its minimalist and ambiguous plot. The majority of the play follows two main characters — the vagabond buddies Vladimir and Estragon — waiting by a barren tree for Godot. Spoiler alert: Their savior never comes.
“People practically rioted,” Haj said of the play’s early reception. Contemporary audiences, Haj said, no longer struggle with the stripped-back format.
“The play is filled with mystery of every kind, and it has baffled scholars and academics and intellectuals for ages,” Haj said. “What's beautiful about the play is even when academics don't understand it, folks actually do.”
The play has often been performed in prisons and war zones, two environments where people must wait, often with no hope of amnesty, respite or grace.
“It's no accident that this play shows up in Sarajevo during the war, played by candlelight with sniper fire in the background. Palestinians have made this play again and again,” Haj said.
“Waiting for Godot” runs through Oct. 11. On Sept. 26, the Guthrie hosts a free event “How’d They Do That? Workshop: Waiting for Godot” with the theater’s creative and production teams.
