What if Godot Actually Arrives? A New Play — in Irish — Imagines the End of Waiting

“Godot Turns Up” at the Irish Repertory Theater was a daring experiment to write a sequel to one of the 20th century’s iconic plays — though it was written by an Irish playwright, Samuel Beckett, who could not speak the country’s ancestral language. Though it was only staged once as a read through, this critic would not be surprised if, given the current vogue for the Nobel Prize winner, it enjoys a long life. This production, “Tagann Godot,” in Irish, is written by Alan Titley and directed by Nicola Ní Mhurchú, with Irish language direction and translation by Caoimhe Nic Giollarnáith. It is entirely in that ancient tongue, which boasts one of the oldest vernacular literatures in all of Western Europe. The English edition of Beckett’s absurdist masterpiece is itself a translation from the original, “En attendant Godot,” which he wrote in French. London’s Royal National Theatre calls “Godot” the most “significant English-language play of the 20th century.” The two protagonists, Vladimir and Estragon, spend the entire play waiting for the title character. They meet Pozzo and his servant Lucky, as well as a servant of Godot who promises that his master will come “tomorrow.” The play’s ambiance is captured by the line “Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It’s awful.”“Godot” premiered in 1953, when the Holocaust was still a recent memory and the Cold War’s nuclear nightmare was just beginning. Beckett was a disciple of James Joyce, and thirty years after the Jazz Age vitality of “Ulysses” the student produced a bleaker work stymied by foreclosed possibilities. “There’s no lack of void” reflects one character, and another meditates that people “give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.”One of the achievements of “Godot Turns Up” is to take Beckett’s gallows humor and amplify it in a slapstick, goofy dimension that is also just a bit uplifting. Vladimir says “I’m waiting my whole life for a message. Is it good? Is it worth listening to? Is it clean or funny, random or risqué?” Here, though, Godot’s messenger announces that his boss is coming, a vow that is fulfilled. The perpetual “tomorrow” of the original becomes the “today” of this sequel.A straightforward second chapter, though, would hardly keep spirit with Beckett. Mr. Titley imagines a game show, something like a carnival or “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire” filmed with a view of the void. When Godot’s servant says “He’s coming, sir” it scarcely sounds believable, and Estragon’s “There’ll be an end to waiting” is something between a prediction and a prayer. When Godot appears, he reflects “people were saying I wouldn’t turn up at all.”The script is alive with wit, many tuned to Irish frequencies. There’s a dig at the central city of Longford, and a knock at the western Irish accent heard at Connemara. Another allusion is to “De Profundis,” or “out of the depths,” a phrase of the Psalmist — a letter written from Reading Gaol by one of Dublin’s greatest literary sons, Oscar Wilde. He and Beckett, both born Protestants in a Catholic land, went to Trinity College and loved the City of Light.When Godot finally arrives he says simply “I don’t want anything. That’s not why I came. I’m happy with the furniture of the fields, birds of the air, and lilies of the field.” Estragon accuses him of putting “an end to dreaming. That can’t be forgiven.” To that Godot answers “I put an end to eternity, that’s something else.” The script, though, offers a final nod to Beckett by casting a spell of doubt: “Maybe he will have to come back again.” The first inscriptions in Irish are in runic script known as Ogham and date from 2,000 years ago. The language thrived as the tongue of both epics and everyday life until the 18th century, when the hegemony of English took root. The late 19th century brought the Gaelic Revival, which bloomed alongside the Irish Literary Revival championed by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory. Echoes of Hebrew’s revival along with Zion are faint but resonant. Perhaps a staging of “Godot” in Irish is prescient. The BBC reckons that “it feels like the Irish language is having a moment.” The Economist reports that “in the land of St Patrick, Irish is making a steady comeback.” A century ago 18 percent of the country spoke it — now some 40 percent claim some proficiency. That Irish, a language two millennia old, is producing new work shows that its future, perhaps like Godot, has every intention of turning up. Céad míle fáilte.

What if Godot Actually Arrives? A New Play — in Irish — Imagines the End of Waiting

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