SAMUEL BECKETT

Waiting for Godot

Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears. But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late!

Samuel Beckett
WAITING FOR GODOT

Alan Schneider
With Zero Mostel and Burgess Meredith
USA, 1961

PLAY OF THE WEEK (1959-1961) presented 67 videotaped Broadway-style productions, broadcast nightly and Sunday afternoons on NTA-owned independent station WNTA-TV (now WNET) in New York City, and syndicated to approximately 100 other NTA Film Network-affiliated stations.

Because well-known performers were willing to accept minimum payments - top salary was $750 - for the prestige of appearing in the critically praised showcase, production costs were kept to an average of $40,000. Although the budget was low, the show had a high distinction which, combined with its reputation as an innovative production, gave it momentum and propelled it into winning a Peabody Award. (This text copied and edited from Wikipedia.)

SAMUEL BECKETT
Waiting for Godot

____________________

He speaks to me again! If this goes on much longer we’ll soon be old friends.

SAMUEL BECKETT from Waiting For Godot

Who am I to tell my private nightmares to if I can’t tell them to you?

SAMUEL BECKETT from Waiting for Godot

All I know is that the hours are long, under these conditions, and constrain us to beguile them with proceedings which—how shall I say—which may at first sight seem reasonable, until they become a habit. You may say it is to prevent our reason from foundering. No doubt. But has it not long been straying in the night without end of the abyssal depths? That’s what I sometimes wonder. You follow my reasoning?

SAMUEL BECKETT from Waiting for Godot 

In the meantime let us try and converse calmly, since we are incapable of keeping silent.