Editing Waiting for Godot (section)

====France and Germany====
"[O]n 17 February 1952 ... an abridged version of the play was performed in the studio of the [[Club d'Essai]] de la Radio and was broadcast on [French] radio ... [A]lthough he sent a polite note that [[Roger Blin]] read out, Beckett himself did not turn up."<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 386, 394</ref> Part of his introduction reads:
{{blockquote|I don't know who Godot is. I don't even know (above all don't know) if he exists. And I don't know if they believe in him or not – those two who are waiting for him. The other two who pass by towards the end of each of the two acts, that must be to break up the monotony. All I knew I showed. It's not much, but it's enough for me, by a wide margin. I'll even say that I would have been satisfied with less. As for wanting to find in all that a broader, loftier meaning to carry away from the performance, along with the program and the [[Eskimo pie]], I cannot see the point of it. But it must be possible ... [[Estragon]], [[Vladimir (Waiting for Godot)|Vladimir]], [[Pozzo (Waiting for Godot)|Pozzo]], [[Lucky (Waiting for Godot)|Lucky]], their time and their space, I was able to know them a little, but far from the need to understand. Maybe they owe you explanations. Let them supply it. Without me. They and I are through with each other.<ref>Ruby Cohn on the ''Godot'' Circle in Knowlson, James and Elizabeth, (Eds.) ''Beckett Remembering – Remembering Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 2006), p. 122</ref>}}

The play was first published in September 1952 by [[Les Éditions de Minuit]]<ref>{{cite book| title=Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts| last=Beckett| first=Samuel| publisher=Faber & Faber| year=2012| isbn=978-0571297016| location=London| at=Table of Dates| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B91TKeLQ54EC&q=beckett+godot+september+1952+minuit&pg=PT16| access-date=21 October 2020| archive-date=21 May 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013126/https://books.google.com/books?id=B91TKeLQ54EC&q=beckett+godot+september+1952+minuit&pg=PT16| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title=En attendant Godot| url=https://archive.org/details/enattendantgodo00beck| url-access=registration|last=Beckett| first=Samuel| publisher=[[Les Éditions de Minuit]]| year=1952| location=Paris| at=Printer's Notice at rear of the first edition states "achevé d'imprimer sur les presses de l'imprimerie habauzit a Aubenas (Ardèche), en septembre mil neuf cent cinquante deux. Dépôt légal 3e trimestre 1952"}}</ref> and released on 17 October 1952 in advance of the first full theatrical performance;<ref>{{cite news |last=McCrum |first=Robert |date=15 August 2016 |title=The 100 best nonfiction books: No 29 – Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (1952/53) |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/15/100-best-nonfiction-books-waiting-for-godot-samuel-beckett-robert-mccrum |work=The Guardian |access-date=18 January 2019 |archive-date=22 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622172507/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/15/100-best-nonfiction-books-waiting-for-godot-samuel-beckett-robert-mccrum |url-status=live }}</ref> only 2500 copies were printed of this first edition.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Samuel Beckett: An Exhibition Held at Reading University Library, May to July 1971|last=Knowlson|first=James|publisher=Turret Books|year=1971|location=London|page=61|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TO5QAQAAIAAJ&q=beckett+godot+1952+minuit+2500|access-date=21 October 2020|archive-date=21 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013106/https://books.google.com/books?id=TO5QAQAAIAAJ&q=beckett+godot+1952+minuit+2500|url-status=live}}</ref> On 4 January 1953, "[t]hirty reviewers came to the ''générale'' of ''En attendant Godot'' before the public opening ... Contrary to later legend, the reviewers were kind ... Some dozen reviews in daily newspapers range[d] from tolerant to enthusiastic ... Reviews in the weeklies [were] longer and more fervent; moreover, they appeared in time to lure spectators to that first thirty-day run"<ref>[[Ruby Cohn|Cohn, Ruby]], ''From Desire to Godot'' (London: Calder Publications; New York: Riverrun Press), 1998, pp. 153, 157</ref> which began on 5 January 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone, Paris. Early public performances were not, however, without incident: during one performance "the curtain had to be brought down after Lucky's [[monologue]] as twenty, well-dressed, but disgruntled spectators whistled and hooted derisively ... One of the protesters [even] wrote a vituperative letter dated 2 February 1953 to ''[[Le Monde]]''."<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 387, 778 n. 139</ref>

The cast comprised {{interlanguage link|Pierre Latour (actor)|fr|Pierre Latour (artiste)|lt=Pierre Latour}} (Estragon), [[Lucien Raimbourg]] (Vladimir), [[Jean Martin]] (Lucky) and [[Roger Blin]] (Pozzo). The actor due to play Pozzo found a more remunerative role and so the director – a shy, lean man in real life – had to step in and play the stout bombaster himself with a pillow amplifying his stomach. Both boys were played by Serge Lecointe. The entire production was done on the thinnest of shoestring budgets; the large battered valise that Martin carried "was found among the city's refuse by the husband of the [[Dresser (theatre)|theatre dresser]] on his rounds as he worked clearing the dustbins",<ref>Interview with Jean Martin, September 1989. Referenced in Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 386, 387</ref> for example. Blin helped the actors embody their characters by asking them to determine a physical malady that would contribute to the nature of their character.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Birkett |first=Jennifer |title=Undoing time: the life and work of Samuel Beckett |date=2017 |publisher=Irish Academic Press |isbn=978-0-7165-3290-3 |location=Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland |page=122}}</ref> Latour emphasized Estragon's bad feet and Raimbourg Vladimir's prostate problems, while Blin played Pozzo as a man with heart difficulties. Martin played Lucky with the symptoms of [[Parkinson's disease]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dumontet |first=Mathilde |date=2020 |title=Concurrence Économique et Interénétration Artistique dans La Parodie et En Attendant Godot de Roger Blin |journal=European Drama and Performance Studies |language=fr |issue=14 |pages=129–144 |via=EBSCOhost}}</ref>

A particularly significant production – from Beckett's perspective – took place in [[Lüttringhausen]] Prison near [[Remscheid]] in Germany. An inmate obtained a copy of the French [[first edition]], translated it himself into German and obtained permission to stage the play. The first night had been on 29 November 1953. He wrote to Beckett in October 1954: "You will be surprised to be receiving a letter about your play ''Waiting for Godot'', from a prison where so many [[Theft|thieves]], [[Forgery|forgers]], [[criminal|toughs]], [[Homosexuality|homos]], [[Lunatic|crazy men]] and [[Murder|killers]] spend this bitch of a life waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting. Waiting for what? Godot? Perhaps."<ref>Letter from an unnamed Lüttringhausen prisoner, 1 October 1956. Translated by James Knowlson. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 431</ref> Beckett was intensely moved and intended to visit the prison to see a last performance of the play but it never happened. This marked "the beginning of Beckett's enduring links with prisons and prisoners ... He took a tremendous interest in productions of his plays performed in prisons."<ref name=Knowlson />