A Royal Lyceum Theatre Production 18 September – 10 October 2015 INFORMATION PACK Produced with the support of Dr Guthrie’s Association, The Martin Connell Charitable Trust, The RS Macdonald Charitable Trust, Souter Charitable Trust and The Trusthouse Charitable Foundation Contents Biography 3 Cast & Creative Team 4/5/6/7 Play Synopsis 8 Production Photos 9 Godot Mania 10/11 Waiting For Godot In Rehearsal 12 Character Breakdowns 13 Themes & Symbolism 14 Hats 14 Waiting 14 Duality 14 The Tree 14 Waiting For Godot at The Lyceum 15 Production Notes 16 Lighting 16 Costume 16 Set 16 Rights To Performance 16 Press Coverage & Reviews 17 Ever tried. Samuel Beckett Ever failed. Novelist and Playwright No matter. (1906-1989) Try Again. Samuel Beckett was born in Ireland on 13 April 1906 in Fail again. Foxrock, Dublin. He is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th Century. He is highly regarded Fail better. for his work as a playwright, theatre director and poet. He SAMUEL BECKETT wrote much of his work in both English and in French as he spent most of his adult life in Paris. Samuel Beckett is considered to be one of the last Modernists and some would consider that his work fits in with early Postmodernism. He is also considered to be one of the key writers of The Theatre of the Absurd - a type of drama that tries to portray and emphasise the absurdity of human life using illogical, meaningless, and deliberately confusing action and dialogue - his work often taking a bleak yet comic outlook on human existence. Waiting For Godot was Beckett’s first published play and was written first in French and completed in 1949 and was premiered in Paris at the Theatre De Babylon in January 1953. Beckett then translated the play into English and it has since been performed all over the world. Samuel Beckett wrote many plays, poems and novels and was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature. Beckett died on 22 December 1989 in Paris at the age of 83. ______ PAGE 3 Cast & Creative Team BRIAN COX BILL PATERSON Awards & Nominations Winner of the BAFTA Scotland Award VLADIMIR ESTRAGON ‘Best Actor’, The Crow Road; Winner of ‘Best Actor’ at the Stage Awards for Acting Excellence at the Edinburgh Festival Royal Lyceum Theatre Appearances Royal Lyceum Theatre Appearances A Mongrel’s Heart, Fringe, And No More Shall We Part. Olivier nominated for A Servant O’ Twa Maisters, Uncle Varick, The Master Builder. Cinderella, Willie Rough; The Glass Menagerie, Loot, They Schweyk in the Second World War. Bill is a Fellow of the Royal Shoot Horses Don’t They, Cry Wolf (Young Lyceum). Conservatoire of Scotland. Recent Theatre Appearances The Weir (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); That Championship Season (Broadway); Lolita Recent Theatre Appearances The Vote (Donmar Warehouse); BENNY YOUNG (National Theatre); Rock n’ Roll (Royal Court/Broadway); The Low Road (Royal Court); Misery, Death & the Maiden, LUCKY Dublin Carol (Royal Court); Art (Broadway); Titus Andronicus Who’s Life is it Anyway (West End); And No More Shall We Part (RSC); St Nicholas (The Gate/Broadway); Ride Down Mt. (Hampstead Theatre/ Traverse Theatre); Astonishing Archie Royal Lyceum Theatre Appearances Hedda Gabler, As You Morgan (Los Angeles Theatre Works); The Music Man (New (Òran Mór); Earthquakes in London, The Marriage Play, Good Like It, Dancing at Lughnasa, Oedipus Tyrannos, Salonika, Willie Shakespeare Company); As You Like It (The Vaudeville Person of Szechuan, Schweyk in the Second World War, Guys Rough. Theatre). & Dolls (National Theatre); Ivanov (Almeida Theatre); Misery (Criterion); Death & the Maiden (Royal Court/Duke of York’s); Recent Theatre Appearances Wallace (The Arches); Right Television Credits include: War and Peace, The Game, An Crime & Punishment (The Lyric Hammersmith); The Cheviot, Now, Unfaithful, Love with a Capital ‘L’ (Traverse Theatre); Adventure Through Space and Time, On Expenses, The Day the Stag and the Black Black Oil, The Games a Bogey, Little Macbeth (Manchester International Festival/Armory Park, of the Triffids, Doctor Who, Kings, The Slap, Lost & Found, Red Hen (7:84 Theatre Co.); The Great Northern Welly Boot New York); Philadelphia Here I Come! (Donmar Warehouse); Scotland in a Day, Shetland, Bob Servant, Gotham, The Big C, Show, Writer’s Cramp (Edinburgh International Festival); The The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Chichester Festival Theatre/ The Take, The Outsiders, Deadwood, Frasier. Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Citizens Theatre). West End); The Seafarer (Perth Theatre/The Lyric, Belfast); Dear Scotland, 27, A Christmas Carol, The Wheel, Be Near Film Credits include: The Autopsy of Jane Doe, The Carer, Television Credits include: Churchill’s Secret; Outlander, Me, Six Characters in Search of an Author (National Theatre Pixels, The Water Horse, Forsaken, The Anomoly, Red, Red 2, Shetland, 37 Days, The Forgotten Fallen, Law and Order UK, of Scotland); Faith Fall, Moonlight & Magnolias, The Demon Dog Fight, Coriolanus, Tell Tale, The Escapist, Zodiac, Running Criminal Justice, Doctor Who, Little Dorrit, Sea of Souls, Foyles Barber, Jekyll & Hyde, Phaedre (Òran Mór); David Leddy’s Sub with Scissors, Red Eye, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne War, Wives and Daughters, The Singing Detective, Traffik, Rosa (Fire Exit Ltd.); The Grapes of Wrath (Chichester Festival Identity, Troy, Sin, X-Men 2, The Reckoning, Adaptation, The The Crow Road, Aufwiedersehen Pet, Smiley’s People, United Theatre/English Touring Company); Staircase, Address Ring, L.I.E, For Love of the Game, Rushmore, The Boxer, Kingdom, The Vanishing Army, Licking Hitler. Unknown, Betrayed, Six Acts of Love, The Drawer Boy (Tron Kiss the Girls, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Glimmer Man, Theatre); The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, Hobson’s Choice Braveheart, Rob Roy, Hidden Agenda, Manhunter and many Film Credits include: Dad’s Army, High Rise, Creation, Miss (The Touring Consortium); The Iceman Cometh (Old Vic). more. Potter, Bright Young Things, Richard III, Truly Madly Deeply, The Witches, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, A Private Television Garrow’s Law, Waking the Dead, Spooks, Playing Awards Winner of Olivier Award for ‘Best Actor’, Titus Function, Defence of the Realm, The Killing Fields, Comfort and the Field, Between the Lines, Tell Tale Hearts, Talk to Me, Andronicus; Winner of Olivier Award for ‘Actor of the Year Joy. Coronation Street, Boon, The Bill, Doctor Finlay, Taggart. in a New Play’, Rat in the Skull; Winner of Emmy Award, Nuremberg; Winner of Gemini Award, Nuremberg; Winner Writing Credits include: the autobiography Tales from the Awards Winner of The Stage Award for Acting Excellence, of Golden Satellite Award for ‘Best Actor’, L.I.E. Outstanding Back Green, and the play Astonishing Archie. Unfaithful Achievement in Film award by BAFTA Scotland. ______ PAGE 5 JOHN BETT MARK THOMSON POZZO DIRECTOR Royal Lyceum Theatre Appearances Mrs Warren’s Profession, Film Credits include: Not Another Happy Ending, Tamara Mark has been Artistic Director at The Lyceum since 2003, A Christmas Carol, As You Like It, Blithe Spirit, Rough Crossing, Drewe, The Golden Compass, My Life So Far, Dr Sleep, Shallow during which time he has directed many of the Royal School For Wives, Three Sisters, Macbeth, Accidental Death of Grave, The Young Visiters, Britannia Hospital, Tess, Scotch Lyceum Theatre Company’s productions including the CATS an Anarchist, The Marriage, Cinderella; Myths, Gregory’s Girl, First Great Train Robbery. Award-winning The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Union, Takin’ Finn Macool, Two Gentlemen of Verona (Young Lyceum). Over the Asylum, Cinderella, The Marriage of Figaro, The Awards & Nominations Winner, Best Actor, CATS Awards, Lieutenant of Inishmore; World Premieres of DC Jackson’s Directing and Writing Credits Writer’s Cramp, A Tale of Scenes From an Execution; BAFTA Light Entertainment Award, Kill Johnny Glendenning, Dark Road (co-written with Ian Hoffmann, Rob Roy; Goodbye Ruby Tuesday (Young Lyceum). See That’s Her; Fringe First, Talk About It. Nominations Rankin); Jo Clifford’s Every One and Faust; John Byrne’s include: Best Actor, CATS Awards, The Government Inspector; Uncle Varick and his own plays A Madman Sings to the Moon, Recent Theatre Appearances Uncle Vanya (West Yorkshire Off West End Awards, The Drawer Boy; Critics Circle Awards, A Pinnochio, Wondrous Flitting, Confessions of a Justified Playhouse); The Devil Masters (Traverse Theatre); Dalgety Christmas Carol. Sinner; Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, The Winter’s Tale, (Theatre Uncut/Young Vic); The Drawer Boy (Finborough Julius Caesar, Othello, As You Like It and The Merchant Theatre); Enquirer, The Bacchae (National Theatre of ZAK MCCULLOUGH of Venice; Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest Scotland); Hamlet, Liberty, We the People, Love’s Labour’s A BOY and Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author Lost, In Extremis, Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare’s Globe); (co-production with National Theatre of Scotland/Citizens The Tobacco Merchant’s Lawyer, Genesis Rock, Laughing at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Appearances A Christmas Carol, A Theatre). Fuhrer (Òran Mór); The Government Inspector (Communicado); Doll’s House (co-production with National Theatre of Scotland). Translations (Citizens Theatre); Damages (Bush Theatre); Zak is a member of Lyceum Youth Theatre (LYT) has appeared Mark was previously the Artistic Director of the Brunton Remembrance of Things Past (National Theatre). in annual LYT Showcase productions. Theatre Company from 1997 – 2002, directing 21 shows and winning a Herald Angel Award for his play A Mad Man Sings Directing and Writing Credits The Kist (Scotland and New Recent Theatre Appearances The Wheel (National Theatre of to the Moon, and a Scotsman Fringe First and Herald Angel York); Para Handy (Scottish Tour); Aunty Agatha Comes to Tea, Scotland). for Moving Objects. Prior to that he was Assistant Director at Slice, Ocean Swell, According to Ben, Nighthawks, Laughing the Theatre Royal Stratford East and the Royal Shakespeare at the Fuhrer (Òran Mór), The Lasses (Rowan Tree); The Jolly Television Child’s Play safety film, Grandad Forgets TV Company and an Associate Director at Nottingham Playhouse.