Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” has graced Broadway once more, bringing with it not just its profound themes of existence and waiting, but also a persistent linguistic puzzle: how exactly does one pronounce “Godot”? This question sparks lively debate among actors, scholars, and theatergoers alike.
Take actor Brandon J. Dirden, for instance. In the current Broadway revival, playing Pozzo, he utters variations of “Godot” a dozen times a night. From “Godet” to “Goday,” “Godan,” “Godin,” and “Gahdeh,” his performance, inflected with a rich Southern twang, playfully highlights the name’s ambiguity. “As if this play wasn’t confusing enough,” Dirden mused in a recent interview.
“Waiting for Godot” first captivated audiences in Paris in 1953. This poignant tragicomedy has delighted and perplexed scholars ever since. While Beckett himself was meticulously strict about the staging of his work—a tradition his estate maintains today—he famously left the pronunciation and meaning of “Godot” open to interpretation. Consequently, every production faces the task of choosing its own approach.
There’s no universal agreement on how to pronounce “Godot,” though regional norms have emerged. In England and Ireland, the emphasis typically falls on the first syllable, “GOD-oh.” Across the Atlantic, American renditions often favor the second syllable, “Guh-DOH.” French speakers, on the other hand, tend to stress both syllables somewhat equally. One constant, however, is the almost universally silent “t.”
“I don’t think there is scholarly consensus,” notes Martin Harries, a professor of comparative literature and Beckett expert. Yet, some directors have claimed definitive knowledge. Anthony Page, who directed a 2009 Broadway revival, famously asserted that Beckett himself pronounced it “GOD-dough” and that any other way was an “Americanism.” Sean Mathias, director of a 2013 revival, echoed this sentiment, stating, “There’s no other way to do it.”
However, Jonathan Kalb, a Hunter College professor who had the rare opportunity to meet Beckett, offers a different perspective. “It’s actually not true that there is a definitive pronunciation,” he clarified. “The fact is, he was very tolerant of different pronunciations.”
For the current Broadway production, British director Jamie Lloyd entrusted the decision to his stars, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves. They chose to emphasize the first syllable, believing it best suited the play’s rhythmic language. “We found that our pronunciation worked best with the patter and alliteration in the text, many instances of which don’t work at all or even make sense when pronounced another way,” Winter explained in an email, emphasizing how it allowed the dialogue to flow naturally.
What profound secrets does the name “Godot” hold? A significant emphasis on the first syllable naturally brings “God” to mind. Yet, Beckett himself never confirmed a divine connection. Over time, he offered various whimsical origins: a French cyclist named Roger Godeau, a slang term for boots, or even a street known for prostitutes. Eventually, he grew weary of the question, telling director Alan Schneider, “If I knew, I would have said so in the play.”
The actual details surrounding Godot are sparse: he’s a farmer, owns livestock, and has a rather casual stance on child labor. Despite these few facts, critics and audiences have continuously wrestled with the name’s deeper meanings—salvation, purpose, rest. But as Professor Harries points out, “The play is about dealing with a world in which any kind of guarantee of a conclusion that’s going to make sense of your life is absent.” Perhaps the meaning intentionally recedes the more one contemplates it.
Alex Winter notes that for him, the meaning of Godot shifts with each performance. “Sometimes he’s just a man with a hayloft that we desire to sleep in, sometimes he’s God, sometimes he doesn’t exist at all and is just another game of distraction.”
Indeed, fixating too much on the identity of “Godot” might be missing the play’s true essence. As Kalb suggests, “In a way, ‘Godot’ is a red herring, a MacGuffin.” The focus isn’t on Godot’s arrival, but on the act of waiting itself—how we fill our time, and how we interact with those who wait alongside us.
This resonates with Dirden’s interpretation: “This play to me, it’s all about, how are we going to coexist with one another.” The enduring enigma of Godot is precisely what allows the play to spark contemplation, inviting us to ponder the “gift and tragedy of the human condition” amid its moments of absurdity. Dirden concludes, “We need to be less interested in the answers and more curious about finding better questions.”