GUTHRIE THEATER PRESENTS SAMUEL BECKETT’S SEMINAL PLAY 
WAITING FOR GODOT, DIRECTED BY JOSEPH HAJ 

Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck, The Bourne Ultimatum, Lincoln) will make his Guthrie debut as Vladimir; actor and film director John Carroll Lynch (Fargo, Zodiac, countless Guthrie roles during the 1990s, including A View From the Bridge) returns to play Estragon 

Previews begin Saturday, September 12; Opening on Thursday, September 17
Playing through Sunday, October 11 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage

(Minneapolis/St. Paul) — The Guthrie Theater (Joseph Haj, Artistic Director) today announced the cast and creative team for Waiting for Godot, the groundbreaking play by Samuel Beckett, directed by Joseph Haj. Waiting for Godot begins previews on Saturday, September 12, opens on Thursday, September 17 and will play through Sunday, October 11 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. Single and group tickets are now on sale exclusively through the Box Office or online at guthrietheater.org. Accessibility services (ASL-interpreted, audio-described and open-captioned performances) are also available on select dates and by request.  

“I’ve wanted to direct Waiting for Godot for 20 years, and it finally feels like the right moment,” said Artistic Director Joseph Haj. “Samuel Beckett crafted this piece in the ashes of World War II, when the old order had collapsed and no new order had yet arrived to take its place. Waiting for Godot is one of the most important plays of the 20th century, forever changing conceptions of modern drama — jettisoning conventional plot, utilizing a circular structure and employing tools of both Vaudeville and poetry in its search for meaning and grace.”

Beckett wrote Waiting for Godot in French in 1948, and it premiered in Paris in 1953. The English translation premiered in the U.K. in 1955 before moving to Broadway in 1956, with its first revival the following year. Over the next several years, Waiting for Godot gained worldwide recognition with productions in Australia, Canada, South Africa, Brazil and Poland, along with numerous adaptations for film and television. Waiting for Godot was last produced at the Guthrie in 1973, featuring Larry Gates as Vladimir, Bernard Behrens as Estragon and Peter Michael Goetz as Pozzo.

In Waiting for Godot, two companions wait for the mysterious Godot beneath a lonely tree on a country road. As time moves along, Vladimir and Estragon fill their day circling the largest of questions: Why are we here? What are we here for? Who are we to be? Beckett’s tragicomedy uses wit and poignant dialogue to create an existential world that is both humorous and heartbreaking. Staged at the Guthrie for the first time in over 50 years, this seminal play explores the human impulses to want more, to understand why and to keep showing up — even when nothing seems to change.  

The cast of Waiting for Godot includes Jim Lichtscheidl (Guthrie: Come From Away, Twelfth Night, The Legend of Georgia McBride) as Lucky, John Carroll Lynch (Guthrie: A View From the Bridge, Dreams of a Dying Heart, The Zoo Story) as Estragon, David Strathairn (Guthrie: debut) as Vladimir, William Sturdivant (Guthrie: Primary Trust, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Lehman Trilogy) as Pozzo and J. Antonio Teodoro (Guthrie: debut) as A Boy. 

The creative team includes Joseph Haj (Director), Marion Williams (Scenic Designer), Trevor Bowen (Costume Designer), Christopher Akerlind (Lighting Designer), Darron L West (Sound Designer), Carla Steen (Resident Dramaturg), Carl Flink (Movement Director), Sara Becker (Vocal Coach), Annie Enneking (Fight Director), Jennifer Liestman, C.S.A. (Resident Casting Director), Karl Alphonso (Stage Manager), Jason Clusman (Assistant Stage Manager), Connor Berkompas (Assistant Director) and McCorkle Casting, Ltd. (NYC Casting Consultant). 

Biographies

Samuel Beckett (Playwright) was an Irish playwright, poet and novelist awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 for his penetrating and uncompromising exploration of the human condition. Born near Dublin, Ireland, he grew up as a gifted athlete, and he studied music and languages at Trinity College. He also traveled extensively abroad, and shortly before World War II, he made his permanent home in Paris. During the German occupation of France, he joined the underground anti-fascist resistance. A keen awareness of humankind’s predicament defines Beckett’s literature, but his outlook doesn’t yield a bleak negativism. Rather, he achieves a supreme convergence of the poetic, the tragic and the comic. His plays Waiting for Godot (1952), Endgame (1957) and Happy Days (1960) are considered masterpieces of 20th-century theater.   

Joseph Haj (Director) is the Artistic Director of the Guthrie Theater where he has directed Somewhere, Cabaret, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The History Plays (Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V in rotating repertory), Hamlet, A Christmas Carol, Dickens’ Holiday Classic, The Glass Menagerie, Cyrano de Bergerac (his own adaptation), West Side Story, Romeo and Juliet, Sunday in the Park With George, King Lear, South Pacific and Pericles. Prior to joining the Guthrie in 2015, Haj served as Producing Artistic Director at PlayMakers Repertory Company, and he has directed and performed across the U.S. and internationally, including Berlin, Salzburg, Japan, Paris, Edinburgh, the West Bank and Gaza. Haj is the recipient of the 2014 Zelda Fichandler Award for leadership in the American theater and the 2017 Rosetta LeNoire Award from Actors’ Equity Association for commitment to diversity onstage. He currently serves as Vice President of the Executive Board of SDC, the union of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Haj holds a B.F.A. in Theatre from Florida International University and an M.F.A. in Acting from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  

Related Events

Post-Play Discussions
Patrons are invited to stay in the theater following select performances for a 20-minute conversation about the production facilitated by Guthrie staff. Cast members may join the discussion as they are able.

Sunday, September 20 at 1 p.m.  
Wednesday, September 23 at 1 p.m.  
Sunday, September 27 at 1 p.m.  
Tuesday, September 29 at 7 p.m.  
Saturday, October 10 at 1 p.m.  

Accessible Performances

ASL-Interpreted Performances
American Sign Language interpreters sign the performance as it plays out onstage.

Friday, October 9 at 7:30 p.m.  
Saturday, October 10 at 1 p.m.  

Audio-Described Performances
Audio describers provide live verbal descriptions of the action, costumes and scenery for people who are blind or have low vision.

Friday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m.  
Saturday, October 10 at 1 p.m. 

Open-Captioned Performances
LED screens display text simultaneously with the performance onstage.

Friday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m.  
Saturday, October 3 at 1 p.m.  
Sunday, October 4 at 1 p.m.  
Wednesday, October 7 at 1 p.m.

The Guthrie provides accessibility services upon request. Requests must be received at least two weeks in advance and can be directed to 612.225.6390 or accessibility@guthrietheater.org.

Ticket Information

Single tickets range from $27 to $91 (handling fees included). Purchase single and group tickets (minimum requirement of 15 per group) through the Box Office at 612.377.2224 (single), 1.877.447.8243 (toll-free), 612.225.6244 (group) or online at guthrietheater.org. The Guthrie Theater Box Office is the only official and most secure source for Guthrie tickets. We cannot guarantee the validity of tickets purchased through any other vendor or third-party seller.

Land Acknowledgment

The Guthrie would like to acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the Dakota People and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations, including the Ojibwe and other Indigenous nations.