Student Question
Describe the audience's reaction at the first staging of Waiting for Godot at San Quentin.
Quick answer:
Waiting For Godot was first staged at San Quentin State Prison on November 19, 1957. The audience of over a thousand prisoners enthusiastically enjoyed the play and found deep meaning in it.
Samuel Beckett's Absurdist play Waiting for Godot was first performed in Paris in 1953 to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. The American reception of the play, however, was not so warm: audiences left the theater either disgusted or bewildered, or a bit of both.
On Tuesday, November 19, 1957, the play was staged at the San Quentin State Prison, the first play shown there in over forty years. The inmate audience of over a thousand men was actually highly enthusiastic about the play and enjoyed it immensely. They also found significant meaning in this strange production that left many others confused.
The play presents a conversation between two men, Vladimir and Estragon, who are waiting for a man by the name of Godot. As they talk, a boy enters and says that Godot is not coming that night. The second act opens the next day again with Vladimir and Estragon waiting for Godot and conversing. The boy appears again (although he claims he is not the same boy) and tells the men that Godot is not coming at all. Vladimir and Estragon contemplate suicide but do not have a rope, and they decide that they will return the next day with their rope. Then the play ends.
Perhaps the themes of waiting and despair resonated with the San Quentin prisoners. They certainly knew what it felt like to live with little hope and to spend much of their time waiting. In any case, they related to the play in a way many other audiences did not.
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