139-420: Godot may refer to: Godot, the eponymous character in the play Waiting for Godot Godot (band) , an English synthpop band formed in the 1980s Buck Godot , a science fiction comic book series, and its title character Godot ( Ace Attorney ) , a character from the video game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations Godot (game engine) ,
278-495: A metaphor for Ireland's view of mainland Britain , where society has ever been blighted by a greedy ruling élite keeping the working classes passive and ignorant by whatever means." The play was written shortly after World War II , during which Beckett and his partner were forced to flee occupied Paris to avoid arrest, owing to their affiliation with the French Resistance. After the war, Beckett volunteered for
417-483: A US tour and on Broadway . Romeo was played by Maurice Evans and Juliet by Cornell. Richardson's performance greatly impressed American critics, and Cornell invited him to return to New York to co-star with her in Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra , though nothing came of this. In 1936, London Films released Things to Come , in which Richardson played the swaggering warlord "The Boss". His performance parodied
556-531: A West End star. In 1933 he had his first speaking part in a film, playing the villain, Nigel Hartley, in The Ghoul , which starred Cedric Hardwicke and Boris Karloff . The following year he was cast in his first starring role in a film, as the hero in The Return of Bulldog Drummond . The Times commented, "Mr Ralph Richardson makes Drummond as brave and stupid on the screen as he is in print." Over
695-650: A doctor named Marthe Gautier, who was working at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital . Martin asked if she knew of a physiological reason that would explain Lucky's voice as it was written in the text. Gautier suggested Parkinson's disease , which, she said, "begins with a trembling, which gets more and more noticeable, until later the patient can no longer speak without the voice shaking". Martin began incorporating this idea into his rehearsals. Beckett and
834-621: A dream-like landscape, or, a form of Purgatory , from which neither man can escape. One interpretation noted the link between the two characters' experiences and the way they represent them: the impotence in Estragon's nightmare and Vladimir's predicament of waiting as his companion sleeps. It is also said that sleep and impatience allow the spectators to distinguish between the two main characters, that sleep expresses Estragon's focus on his sensations while Vladimir's restlessness shows his focus on his thoughts. This particular aspect involving sleep
973-515: A film version , which was his sole venture into direction for the screen. Once he had played himself into a role in a long run, Richardson felt able to work during the daytime in films, and made two others in the early 1950s beside the film of the Sherriff piece: Outcast of the Islands , directed by Carol Reed, and David Lean 's The Sound Barrier , released in 1951 and 1952 respectively. For
1112-427: A free and open-source game engine Godot , the first tunnel boring machine for Elon Musk's The Boring Company See also [ edit ] [REDACTED] The dictionary definition of Godotian at Wiktionary Gadot , a kibbutz in northern Israel Gadot (surname) Godet (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
1251-671: A friendship. The friendship and professional association lasted until the end of Richardson's life. Gielgud wrote in 1983, "Besides cherishing our long years of work together in the theatre, where he was such an inspiring and generous partner, I grew to love him in private life as a great gentleman, a rare spirit, fair and balanced, devotedly loyal and tolerant and, as a companion, bursting with vitality, curiosity and humour." Among Richardson's other parts in his first Old Vic season, Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra gained particularly good notices. The Morning Post commented that it placed him in
1390-495: A heavy suitcase, falling on a number of occasions, only to be helped and held up by Estragon and Vladimir. Lucky speaks only once in the play and it is in response to Pozzo's order to "think" for Estragon and Vladimir. The ostensibly abstract philosophical meanderings supplied to the audience by Lucky during his speech have been described as "a flood of completely meaningless gibberish" by Martin Esslin in his essay, "The Theatre of
1529-560: A leafless tree. Estragon notifies Vladimir of his most recent troubles: he spent the previous night lying in a ditch and received a beating from a number of anonymous assailants. The duo discuss a variety of issues at length, none of any apparent significance, and it is finally revealed that they are awaiting a man named Godot. They are not certain if they have ever met Godot, nor if he will even arrive. Subsequently, an imperious traveller named Pozzo, along with his silent slave Lucky, arrives and pauses to converse with Vladimir and Estragon. Lucky
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#17328023388071668-459: A local lad, assures Vladimir that this is the first time he has seen him. He says he was not there the previous day. He confirms he works for Mr. Godot as a goatherd . His brother, whom Godot beats, is a shepherd . Godot feeds both of them and allows them to sleep in his hayloft. The boy in Act II also assures Vladimir that it was not he who called upon them the day before. He insists that this too
1807-469: A manifestation of a stream of repressed unconsciousness, as he is allowed to "think" for his master. Estragon's name has another connotation, besides that of the aromatic herb, tarragon : "estragon" sounds similar to estrogen , the female hormone (Carter, 130). This prompts us to identify him with the anima , the feminine image of Vladimir's soul. It explains Estragon's propensity for poetry, his sensitivity and dreams, his irrational moods. Vladimir appears as
1946-405: A means of subsidising his much less profitable stage work. He said, "I've never been one of those chaps who scoff at films. I think they're a marvellous medium, and are to the stage what engravings are to painting. The theatre may give you big chances, but the cinema teaches you the details of craftsmanship." The Fallen Idol was followed by Richardson's first Hollywood part. He played Dr Sloper,
2085-717: A new piece by Priestley, Bees on the Boatdeck . Both actors won excellent notices, but the play, an allegory of Britain's decline, did not attract the public. It closed after four weeks, the last in a succession of West End productions in which Richardson appeared to much acclaim but which were box-office failures. In August of the same year he finally had a long-running star part, the title role in Barré Lyndon 's comedy thriller , The Amazing Dr Clitterhouse , which played for 492 performances, closing in October 1937. After
2224-400: A plain villain, and, in fact, we have seldom seen a man smile and smile and be a villain so adequately." His biggest success of the season was as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream . Both Agate and Darlington commented on how the actor transformed the character from the bumbling workman to the magically changed creature on whom Titania dotes. Agate wrote that most of those who had played
2363-548: A play in which nothing happens, twice." Mercier once questioned Beckett on the language used by the pair: "It seemed to me...he made Didi and Gogo sound as if they had earned PhDs. 'How do you know they hadn't?' was his reply." They clearly have known better times, such as a visit to the Eiffel Tower and grape-harvesting by the Rhône ; this is about all either has to say about their pasts, save for Estragon's claim to have been
2502-446: A poet, an explanation Estragon provides to Vladimir for his destitution. In the first stage production, which Beckett oversaw, both are "more shabby-genteel than ragged...Vladimir at least is capable of being scandalised...on a matter of etiquette when Estragon begs for chicken bones or money." Pozzo and Lucky have been together for sixty years. Pozzo controls Lucky by means of an extremely long rope, which he jerks and tugs if Lucky
2641-709: A poll conducted by the British Royal National Theatre in 1998/99, it was voted as the "most significant English-language play of the 20th century". The original French text was composed between 9 October 1948 and 29 January 1949. The premiere , directed by Roger Blin , was on 5 January 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone [ fr ] , Paris. The English-language version of the play premiered in London in 1955. The play opens with two bedraggled acquaintances, Vladimir and Estragon, meeting by
2780-530: A priest. In Brighton he served as an altar boy , which he enjoyed, but when sent at about fifteen to the nearby Xaverian College, a seminary for trainee priests, he ran away. As a pupil at a series of schools he was uninterested in most subjects and was an indifferent scholar. His Latin was poor, and during church services he would improvise parts of the Latin responses, developing a talent for invention when memory failed that proved useful in his later career. I
2919-602: A professional cyclist from 1943 to 1961), outside the velodrome in Roubaix . Of the two boys who work for Godot only one appears safe from beatings, "Beckett said, only half-jokingly, that one of Estragon's feet was saved". The name "Godot" is pronounced in Britain and Ireland with the emphasis on the first syllable, / ˈ ɡ ɒ d oʊ / GOD -oh ; in North America it is usually pronounced with an emphasis on
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#17328023388073058-526: A reaction showed, however, was that, although the play can in no way be taken as a political allegory , there are elements that are relevant to any local situation in which one man is being exploited or oppressed by another." "It was seen as an allegory of the Cold War " or of French Resistance to the Germans. Graham Hassell writes, "[T]he intrusion of Pozzo and Lucky [...] seems like nothing more than
3197-482: A record of experience. Of course you use it." Beckett tired quickly of "the endless misunderstanding." As far back as 1955, he remarked, "Why people have to complicate a thing so simple I can't make out." He was not forthcoming with anything more than cryptic clues, however: " Peter Woodthorpe [who played Estragon] remembered asking him one day in a taxi what the play was really about: 'It's all symbiosis , Peter; it's symbiosis,' answered Beckett." Beckett directed
3336-464: A religious element, although Arthur was a dedicated Quaker , whose first two sons were brought up in that faith, whereas Lydia was a devout convert to Roman Catholicism , in which she raised Ralph. Mother and son had a variety of homes, the first of which was a bungalow converted from two railway carriages in Shoreham-by-Sea on the south coast of England. Lydia wanted Richardson to become
3475-940: A rising star but Richardson's talents were not yet so apparent; he was allotted supporting roles such as Lane in The Importance of Being Earnest and Albert Prossor in Hobson's Choice . Richardson made his London debut in July 1926 as the stranger in Oedipus at Colonus in a Sunday-night performance at the Scala Theatre , with a cast including Percy Walsh , John Laurie and D. A. Clarke-Smith . He then toured for three months in Eden Phillpotts 's comedy Devonshire Cream with Jackson's company led by Cedric Hardwicke . When Phillpotts's next comedy, Yellow Sands ,
3614-401: A rope with which to hang themselves. They decide to leave and return the day after with a rope, but again they merely remain motionless as the scene fades to black. Beckett refrained from elaborating on the characters beyond what he had written in the play. He once recalled that when Sir Ralph Richardson "wanted the low-down on Pozzo, his home address and curriculum vitae , and seemed to make
3753-618: A short run in The Silent Knight , described by Miller as "a Hungarian fantasy in rhymed verse set in the fifteenth century", Richardson returned to the Old Vic for the 1937–38 season, playing Bottom once again and switching parts in Othello , playing the title role, with Olivier as Iago. The director, Tyrone Guthrie , wanted to experiment with the theory that Iago's villainy is driven by suppressed homosexual love for Othello. Olivier
3892-426: A steady outpouring of books and articles." Throughout Waiting for Godot , the audience may encounter religious , philosophical, classical , psychoanalytical and biographical – especially wartime – references. There are ritualistic aspects and elements taken directly from vaudeville , and there is a danger in making more of these than what they are: that is, merely structural conveniences, avatars into which
4031-592: A substitution of form for essence, covering for reality", wrote Gerald Mast in The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies . Their "blather", which includes Hiberno-English idioms, indicated that they are both Irish . Vladimir stands through most of the play whereas Estragon sits down numerous times and even dozes off. "Estragon is inert and Vladimir restless." Vladimir looks at the sky and muses on religious or philosophical matters. Estragon "belongs to
4170-412: A teenager, the director Peter Hall saw the production; he said fifty years later, "Of the performances I've seen in my life I'm gladdest I saw that." In the second double bill it was Olivier who dominated, in the title roles of Oedipus Rex and The Critic . Richardson took the supporting role of Tiresias in the first, and the silent, cameo part of Lord Burleigh in the second. After the London season
4309-552: A timid pilot. He counted himself lucky to have been accepted, but the Fleet Air Arm was short of pilots. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-commander . His work was mostly routine administration, probably because of "the large number of planes which seemed to fall to pieces under his control", through which he acquired the nickname " Pranger " Richardson. He served at several bases in the south of England, and in April 1941, at
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4448-404: A tribute to the play in autumn 1999, "with Beckett himself placed in different schools of thought, different movements and 'isms'. The attempts to pin him down have not been successful, but the desire to do so is natural when we encounter a writer whose minimalist art reaches for bedrock reality. 'Less' forces us to look for 'more', and the need to talk about Godot and about Beckett has resulted in
4587-713: A wage of £3 a week. Richardson made his first appearance as a professional actor at the Marina Theatre, Lowestoft , in August 1921, as Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice . He remained with Doran's company for most of the next two years, gradually gaining more important roles, including Banquo in Macbeth and Mark Antony in Julius Caesar . Doran's company specialised in the classics, principally Shakespeare . After two years of period costumes Richardson felt
4726-751: A week. After his final Old Vic season he made two films in quick succession for Korda. The first, Anna Karenina , with Vivien Leigh , was an expensive failure, although Richardson's notices in the role of Karenin were excellent. The second, The Fallen Idol , had notable commercial and critical success, and won awards in Europe and America. It remained one of Richardson's favourites of his films. In Miller's words, " Carol Reed 's sensitive direction drew faultless performances not just from Ralph as Baines (the butler and mistakenly suspected murderer), but also from Michèle Morgan as his mistress, Sonia Dresdel as his cold-hearted wife, and especially from Bobby Henrey as
4865-466: Is a character who has to overcompensate. That's why he overdoes things ... and his overcompensation has to do with a deep insecurity in him. These were things Beckett said, psychological terms he used." Beckett's advice to the American director Alan Schneider was: "[Pozzo] is a hypomaniac and the only way to play him is to play him mad." "In his [English] translation ... Beckett struggled to retain
5004-985: Is a game in order to survive. Over the years, Beckett clearly realised that the greater part of Godot' s success came down to the fact that it was open to a variety of readings and that this was not necessarily a bad thing. Beckett himself sanctioned "one of the most famous mixed-race productions of Godot , performed at the Baxter Theatre in the University of Cape Town , directed by Donald Howarth , with [...] two black actors, John Kani and Winston Ntshona , playing Didi and Gogo; Pozzo, dressed in checked shirt and gumboots reminiscent of an Afrikaner landlord, and Lucky ('a shanty town piece of white trash ' ) were played by two white actors, Bill Flynn and Peter Piccolo [...]. The Baxter production has often been portrayed as if it were an explicitly political production, when in fact it received very little emphasis. What such
5143-455: Is a play by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett in which two characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives. Waiting for Godot is Beckett's reworking of his own original French-language play, En attendant Godot , and is subtitled (in English only) " a tragicomedy in two acts ". In
5282-446: Is bound by a rope held by Pozzo, who forces Lucky to carry his heavy bags and physically punishes him if he deems Lucky's movements too lethargic. Pozzo states that he is on the way to the market, at which he intends to sell Lucky for profit. Following Pozzo's command "Think!", the otherwise mute Lucky performs a sudden dance and monologue: a torrent of academic-sounding phrases mixed with pure nonsense. Pozzo and Lucky soon depart, leaving
5421-463: Is doomed to be faced with the Absurd , or the absolute absurdity of the existence in lack of intrinsic purpose. Just after Didi and Gogo have been particularly selfish and callous, the boy comes to say that Godot is not coming. The boy (or pair of boys) may be seen to represent meekness and hope before compassion is consciously excluded by an evolving personality and character, and in which case may be
5560-496: Is his first visit. When Vladimir asks what Godot does the boy tells him, "He does nothing, sir." We also learn he has a white beard – possibly, the boy is not certain. This boy also has a brother who it seems is sick but there is no clear evidence to suggest that his brother is the boy who came in Act I or the one who came the day before that. Whether the boy from Act I is the same boy from Act II or not, both boys are polite yet timid. In
5699-564: Is indicative of what some called a pattern of duality in the play. In the case of the protagonists, the duality involves the body and the mind, making the characters complementary. Throughout the play the couple refer to each other by the pet names "Didi" and "Gogo", although the boy addresses Vladimir as "Mister Albert". Beckett originally intended to call Estragon "Lévy" but when Pozzo questions him he gives his name as "Magrégor, André" and also responds to " Catulle " in French or " Catullus " in
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5838-482: Is involved in a similar situation, it has been suggested he may have been instead influenced by The Lovable Cheat , a minor adaptation of Mercadet starring Buster Keaton , whose works Beckett had admired, and whom he later sought out for Film . Unlike elsewhere in Beckett's work, no bicycle appears in this play, but Hugh Kenner in his essay "The Cartesian Centaur" reports that Beckett once, when asked about
5977-402: Is made by Kapp and Peterson , Dublin's best-known tobacconists (which he refers to as a " briar " but which Estragon calls by the dialect word dudeen ). Not only is his Hiberno-English text more colourful than the French original, but it emphasizes the differences in the characters' social standing. Pozzo confesses to a poor memory but it is more a result of an abiding self-absorption. "Pozzo
6116-418: Is not without its discomforts too but he is the more resilient of the pair. "Vladimir's pain is primarily mental anguish, which would thus account for his voluntary exchange of his hat for Lucky's, thus signifying Vladimir's symbolic desire for another person's thoughts." These characterizations, for some, represented the act of thinking or mental state (Vladimir) and physical things or the body (Estragon). This
6255-440: Is the cement binding their relationship together. He continually forgets, Vladimir continually reminds him; between them they pass the time." Estragon's forgetfulness affords the author a certain narrative utility also, allowing for the mundane, empty conversations held between him and Vladimir to continue seamlessly. They have been together for fifty years but when asked by Pozzo they do not reveal their actual ages. Vladimir's life
6394-468: Is the least bit slow. It has been contended that " Pozzo and Lucky are simply Didi and Gogo writ large", unbalanced as their relationship is. However, Pozzo's dominance is superficial; "upon closer inspection, it becomes evident that Lucky always possessed more influence in the relationship, for he danced, and more importantly, thought – not as a service, but in order to fill a vacant need of Pozzo: he committed all of these acts for Pozzo. As such, since
6533-675: Is the wrong colour." In 1945 the company toured Germany, where they were seen by many thousands of Allied servicemen; they also appeared at the Comédie-Française theatre in Paris, the first foreign company to be given that honour. The critic Harold Hobson wrote that Richardson and Olivier quickly "made the Old Vic the most famous theatre in the Anglo-Saxon world." The second season, in 1945, featured two double-bills. The first consisted of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 . Olivier played
6672-450: Is visually depicted by Vladimir's continuous attention to his hat and Estragon to his boots. While the two characters are temperamentally opposite, with their differing responses to a situation, they are both essential as demonstrated in the way Vladimir's metaphysical musings were balanced by Estragon's physical demands. The above characterizations, particularly that which concerns their existential situation, are also demonstrated in one of
6811-569: The Beckett on Film project. This, some feel, is an inevitable consequence of Beckett's rhythms and phraseology, but it is not stipulated in the text. At any rate, they are not of English stock: at one point early in the play, Estragon mocks the English pronunciation of "calm" and has fun with "the story of the Englishman in the brothel". "Bernard Dukore develops a triadic theory in Didi, Gogo and
6950-542: The Birmingham Repertory Theatre for a touring production of The Farmer's Wife . From December of that year they were members of the main repertory company in Birmingham. Through Jackson's chief director, the veteran taskmaster H. K. Ayliff , Richardson "absorbed the influence of older contemporaries like Gerald du Maurier , Charles Hawtrey and Mrs Patrick Campbell ." Hewitt was seen as
7089-522: The Malvern Festival , under the direction of his old Birmingham director, Ayliff. Salaries at the Old Vic and the Festival were not large, and Richardson was glad of a job as an extra in the 1931 film Dreyfus . As his wife's condition worsened he needed to pay for more and more nursing; she was looked after in a succession of hospitals and care homes. Succeeding Gielgud as leading man at
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#17328023388077228-658: The Red Cross in the French city Saint-Lô , which had been almost completely destroyed during the D-Day fighting. These experiences would have likely had a severe impact on both Beckett's personal politics, as well as his views on the prevailing policies that informed the period in which he found himself. Some academics have theorized that Godot is set during World War II, with Estragon and Vladimir being two Jews waiting for Godot to smuggle them out of occupied France. Vladimir and Estragon are often played with Irish accents, as in
7367-471: The Royal Albert Hall and elsewhere, and made one short film and three full-length ones, including The Silver Fleet , in which he played a Dutch Resistance hero, and The Volunteer , a propaganda film in which he appeared as himself. Throughout the war Guthrie had striven to keep the Old Vic company going, even after German bombing in 1942 left the theatre a near-ruin. A small troupe toured
7506-498: The Royal Naval Air Station, Lee-on-Solent , he was able to welcome Olivier, newly commissioned as a temporary sub-lieutenant. Olivier rapidly eclipsed Richardson's record for pranging. In 1942, on his way to visit his wife at the cottage where she was cared for by a devoted couple, Richardson crashed his motor-bike and was in hospital for several weeks. Kit was at that point mobile enough to visit him, but later in
7645-678: The Sea Lords consented, with, as Olivier put it, "a speediness and lack of reluctance which was positively hurtful." The triumvirate secured the New Theatre for their first season and recruited a company. Thorndike was joined by, among others, Harcourt Williams, Joyce Redman and Margaret Leighton . It was agreed to open with a repertory of four plays: Peer Gynt , Arms and the Man , Richard III and Uncle Vanya . Richardson's roles were Peer, Bluntschli, Richmond and Vanya; Olivier played
7784-449: The ego and the shadow , the persona and the soul's image ( animus or anima ). The shadow is the container of all our despised emotions repressed by the ego. Lucky, the shadow, serves as the polar opposite of the egocentric Pozzo, prototype of prosperous mediocrity, who incessantly controls and persecutes his subordinate, thus symbolising the oppression of the unconscious shadow by the despotic ego. Lucky's monologue in Act I appears as
7923-500: The lieu vague , a location which should not be particularised". Other clues about the location can be found in the dialogue. In Act I, Vladimir turns toward the auditorium and describes it as a bog. In Act II, Vladimir again motions to the auditorium and notes that there is "Not a soul in sight." When Estragon rushes toward the back of the stage in Act II, Vladimir scolds him, saying that "There's no way out there." Also in Act II, Vladimir comments that their surroundings look nothing like
8062-545: The 1920s with a touring company and later the Birmingham Repertory Theatre . In 1931 he joined the Old Vic , playing mostly Shakespearean roles. He led the company the following season, succeeding Gielgud, who had taught him much about stage technique. After he left the company, a series of leading roles took him to stardom in the West End and on Broadway . In the 1940s, together with Olivier and John Burrell , Richardson
8201-417: The Absurd" . Esslin suggests that this seemingly involuntary, philosophical spouting is an example of the actor's working "against the dialogue rather than with it", providing grounds for Esslin's claims that the "fervor of delivery" in the play must "stand in a dialectical contrast to the pointlessness of the meaning of the lines". Jean Martin , who originated the role of Lucky in Paris in 1953, spoke to
8340-635: The Button Moulder, Sergius, Richard and Astrov. The first three productions met with acclaim from reviewers and audiences; Uncle Vanya had a mixed reception. The Times thought Olivier's Astrov "a most distinguished portrait" and Richardson's Vanya "the perfect compound of absurdity and pathos". Agate, on the other hand, commented, " 'Floored for life, sir, and jolly miserable' is what Uncle Vanya takes three acts to say. And I just cannot believe in Mr Richardson wallowing in misery: his voice
8479-501: The English – and in English-language productions the pair are traditionally played with Irish accents . The script calls for Estragon to sit on a low mound but in practice – as in Beckett's own 1975 German production – this is usually a stone. In the first act the tree is bare. In the second, a few leaves have appeared despite the script specifying that it is the next day. The minimal description calls to mind "the idea of
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#17328023388078618-399: The French atmosphere as much as possible, so that he delegated all the English names and places to Lucky, whose own name, he thought, suggested such a correlation". Lucky appears to be the subservient member of their relationship, at least initially, carrying out every task that Pozzo bids him to do without question, portraying a form of "dog-like devotion" to his master. He struggles with
8757-529: The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini so effectively that the film was immediately banned in Italy. The producer was Alexander Korda ; the two men formed a long and mutually beneficial friendship. Richardson later said of Korda, "Though not so very much older than I am, I regarded him in a way as a father, and to me he was as generous as a prince." In May 1936 Richardson and Olivier jointly directed and starred in
8896-525: The Macon country, and Estragon states that he's lived his whole life "Here! In the Cackon country!" Alan Schneider once suggested putting the play on in the round – Pozzo has been described as a ringmaster – but Beckett dissuaded him: "I don't in my ignorance agree with the round and feel Godot needs a very closed box." He even contemplated at one point having a "faint shadow of bars on stage floor" but, in
9035-515: The National Theatre and had no intention of letting actors run it. He was encouraged by Guthrie, who, having instigated the appointment of Richardson and Olivier, had come to resent their knighthoods and international fame. Esher terminated their contracts while both were out of the country, and they and Burrell were said to have "resigned". Looking back in 1971, Bernard Levin wrote that the Old Vic company of 1944 to 1947 "was probably
9174-703: The Old Vic, Richardson had a varied season, in which there were conspicuous successes interspersed with critical failures. James Agate was not convinced by him as the domineering Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew ; in Julius Caesar the whole cast received tepid reviews. In Othello Richardson divided the critics. He emphasised the plausible charm of the murderous Iago to a degree that Agate thought "very good Richardson, but indifferent Shakespeare", whereas The Times said, "He never stalked or hissed like
9313-730: The Sea , which ran at the Haymarket for 386 performances. During this period, Richardson played Dr Watson in an American/BBC radio co-production of Sherlock Holmes stories, with Gielgud as Holmes and Orson Welles as the evil Professor Moriarty. These recordings were later released commercially on disc. In late 1954 and early 1955 Richardson and his wife toured Australia together with Sybil Thorndike and her husband, Lewis Casson , playing Terence Rattigan 's plays The Sleeping Prince and Separate Tables . The following year he worked with Olivier again, playing Buckingham to Olivier's Richard in
9452-641: The UK, Europe and the US for his stage and screen work from 1948 until his death. Richardson was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor , first for The Heiress (1949) and again (posthumously) for his final film, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984). Throughout his career, and increasingly in later years, Richardson was known for his eccentric behaviour on and off stage. He
9591-579: The West End, with Ashcroft as Sloper's daughter Catherine. The piece was to open in February 1949 at Richardson's favourite theatre, the Haymarket. Rehearsals were chaotic. Burrell, whom Richardson had asked to direct, was not up to the task – possibly, Miller speculates, because of nervous exhaustion from the recent traumas at the Old Vic. With only a week to go before the first performance, the producer, Binkie Beaumont , asked him to stand down, and Gielgud
9730-505: The absent Godot , based on Sigmund Freud 's trinitarian description of the psyche in The Ego and the Id (1923) and the usage of onomastic techniques. Dukore defines the characters by what they lack: the rational Go-go embodies the incomplete ego, the missing pleasure principle : (e)go-(e)go. Di-di (id-id) – who is more instinctual and irrational – is seen as the backward id or subversion of
9869-467: The absent character 'Godot', because of all the theories involving God to which this had given rise." "I also told [Ralph] Richardson that if by Godot I had meant God I would [have] said God, and not Godot. This seemed to disappoint him greatly." That said, Beckett did once concede, "It would be fatuous of me to pretend that I am not aware of the meanings attached to the word 'Godot', and the opinion of many that it means 'God'. But you must remember – I wrote
10008-482: The acting and management in a triumvirate. Initially he proposed Gielgud and Olivier as his colleagues, but the former declined, saying, "It would be a disaster, you would have to spend your whole time as referee between Larry and me." It was finally agreed that the third member would be the stage director John Burrell . The Old Vic governors approached the Royal Navy to secure the release of Richardson and Olivier;
10147-627: The age of eighty. He was celebrated in later years for his work with Peter Hall 's National Theatre and his frequent stage partnership with Gielgud. He was not known for his portrayal of the great tragic roles in the classics, preferring character parts in old and new plays. Richardson's film career began as an extra in 1931. He was soon cast in leading roles in British and American films including Things to Come (1936), The Fallen Idol (1948), Long Day's Journey into Night (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965). He received nominations and awards in
10286-443: The art school in 1920, and considered how else he might make a career. He briefly thought of pharmacy and then of journalism, abandoning each when he learned how much study the former required and how difficult mastering shorthand for the latter would be. He was still unsure what to do, when he saw Sir Frank Benson as Hamlet in a touring production. He was thrilled, and felt at once that he must become an actor. Buttressed by what
10425-518: The bewildered Estragon and Vladimir to continue their wait for the absent Godot. Eventually, a boy shows up and explains to Vladimir and Estragon that he is a messenger from Godot, and that Godot will not be arriving tonight, but surely tomorrow. Vladimir asks for descriptions of Godot, receiving only extremely brief or vague answers from the boy, who soon exits. Vladimir and Estragon then announce that they will also leave, but they remain onstage without moving. Vladimir and Estragon are again waiting near
10564-422: The boy reappears to report that Godot will not be coming. The boy states that he has not met Vladimir and Estragon before and he is not the same boy who talked to Vladimir yesterday, which causes Vladimir to burst into a rage at the child, demanding that the boy remember him the next day so as to avoid repeating this encounter once more. After the boy exits, Vladimir and Estragon consider suicide, but they do not have
10703-513: The character as a breezy cockney , winning praise for turning a usually dreary role into something richly entertaining. For the rest of 1928 he appeared in what Miller describes as several unremarkable modern plays. For much of 1929 he toured South Africa in Gerald Lawrence 's company in three period costume plays, including The School for Scandal , in which he played Joseph Surface. The sole venture into musical comedy of his career
10842-625: The characters' lives. He finds it hard to remember but can recall certain things when prompted, e.g. , when Vladimir asks: "Do you remember the Gospels ?" Estragon tells Vladimir about the coloured maps of the Holy Land and that he planned to honeymoon by the Dead Sea ; it is his short-term memory that is poorest and suggests that he may, in fact, be suffering from Alzheimer's disease . Al Alvarez writes: "But perhaps Estragon's forgetfulness
10981-751: The clothes worn at least by Estragon are shabby. When told by Vladimir that he should have been a poet, Estragon says he was, gestures to his rags, and asks if it were not obvious. There are no physical descriptions of either of the two characters; however, the text indicates that Vladimir is the heavier of the pair: the contemplation-of-suicide scene tells us exactly that. The bowlers and other broadly comic aspects of their personae have reminded modern audiences of Laurel and Hardy , who occasionally played tramps in their films. "The hat-passing game in Waiting for Godot and Lucky's inability to think without his hat on are two obvious Beckett derivations from Laurel and Hardy –
11120-720: The company played both the double-bills and Uncle Vanya in a six-week season on Broadway. The third, and final, season under the triumvirate was in 1946–47. Olivier played King Lear, and Richardson, Cyrano de Bergerac . Olivier would have preferred the roles to be cast the other way about, but Richardson did not wish to attempt Lear. Richardson's other roles in the season were Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls , Face in The Alchemist and John of Gaunt in Richard II , which he directed, with Alec Guinness in
11259-450: The complementary masculine principle, or perhaps the rational persona of the contemplative type." Broadly speaking, existentialists hold that there are certain fundamental questions that all human beings must come to terms with if they are to take their subjective existences seriously and with intrinsic value. Questions such as life, death, the meaning of human existence and the place of God in that existence are among them. By and large,
11398-437: The difference by having Vladimir pronounce "Godot" with equal stress on both syllables (goh-doh) and Estragon pronounce it with the accent on the second syllable (g'doh). There is only one scene throughout both acts. Two men are waiting on a country road by a tree. The men are of unspecified origin, though it is clear that they are not English by nationality since they refer to currency as francs , and tell derisive jokes about
11537-474: The director may not have been completely convinced, but they expressed no objections. When Martin mentioned to the playwright that he was "playing Lucky as if he were suffering from Parkinson's", Beckett responded by saying "Yes, of course", and mentioning that his own mother had Parkinson's. When Beckett was asked why Lucky was so named, he replied, "I suppose he is lucky to have no more expectations..." The cast list specifies only one boy. The boy in Act I,
11676-416: The distraught boy, Philippe." Richardson had gained a national reputation as a great actor while at the Old Vic; films gave him the opportunity to reach an international audience. Unlike some of his theatre colleagues, he was never condescending about film work. He admitted that film could be "a cage for an actor, but a cage in which they sometimes put a little gold", but he did not regard filming as merely
11815-560: The end, decided against this level of what he called "explicitation". In Beckett's 1975 Schiller Theater production in Berlin, there are times when Didi and Gogo appear to bounce off something "like birds trapped in the strands of [an invisible] net", in James Knowlson's description. "Because the play is so stripped down, so elemental, it invites all kinds of social and political and religious interpretation", wrote Normand Berlin in
11954-532: The fact that he is on his way to the fair to sell his slave, Lucky. From Beckett's own life experiences in Ireland and wartime France, commentators such as Hugh Kenner have identified Pozzo as representing German behaviour in occupied France, or alternatively as a bullying and conceited Protestant Ascendancy landlord. When translating his original French dialogue into English, Beckett took pains to introduce Irish idiom (specifically, Dubliners' idiom): Pozzo's pipe
12093-576: The family In 1907 the family split up; there was no divorce or formal separation, but the two elder boys, Christopher and Ambrose, remained with their father and Lydia left them, taking Ralph with her. The ostensible cause of the couple's separation was a row over Lydia's choice of wallpaper for her husband's study. According to John Miller's biography, whatever underlying causes there may have been are unknown. An earlier biographer, Garry O'Connor , speculates that Arthur Richardson might have been having an extramarital affair. There does not seem to have been
12232-418: The first Faber edition. This became "Adam" in the American edition. Beckett's only explanation was that he was "fed up with Catullus". Vivian Mercier described Waiting for Godot as a play which "has achieved a theoretical impossibility – a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written
12371-504: The first act, the boy, despite arriving while Pozzo and Lucky are still about, does not announce himself until after Pozzo and Lucky leave, saying to Vladimir and Estragon that he waited for the other two to leave out of fear of the two men and of Pozzo's whip; the boy does not arrive early enough in Act II to see either Lucky or Pozzo. In both acts, the boy seems hesitant to speak very much, saying mostly "Yes Sir" or "No Sir", and winds up exiting by running away. The identity of Godot has been
12510-401: The first appearance of the duo, the true slave had always been Pozzo." Pozzo credits Lucky with having given him all the culture, refinement, and ability to reason that he possesses. His rhetoric has been learned by rote. Pozzo's "party piece" on the sky is a clear example: as his memory crumbles, he finds himself unable to continue under his own steam. Little is learned about Pozzo besides
12649-520: The first rank of Shakespearean actors. At the beginning of 1931 Baylis re-opened Sadler's Wells Theatre with a production of Twelfth Night starring Gielgud as Malvolio and Richardson as Sir Toby Belch . W. A. Darlington in The Daily Telegraph wrote of Richardson's "ripe, rich and mellow Sir Toby, [which] I would go many miles to see again." During the summer break between the Old Vic 1930–31 and 1931–32 seasons, Richardson played at
12788-471: The first time since his Old Vic days was keenly anticipated, but turned out to be a serious disappointment. He had poor reviews for his Prospero in The Tempest , judged too prosaic. In the second production of the festival his Macbeth, directed by Gielgud, was generally considered a failure. He was thought unconvincingly villainous; the influential young critic Kenneth Tynan professed himself "unmoved to
12927-415: The forthcoming of this and similar information the condition of his condescending to illustrate the part of Vladimir ... I told him that all I knew about Pozzo was in the text, that if I had known more I would have put it in the text, and that was true also of the other characters." When Beckett started writing he did not have a visual image of Vladimir and Estragon. They are never referred to as tramps in
13066-653: The ineffectual Vershinin. He did not attempt Chekhov again for more than a quarter of a century. Richardson's playing of Macbeth suggests a fatal disparity between his temperament and the part The Times , June 1952 In 1952 Richardson appeared at the Stratford-upon-Avon Festival at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (forerunner of the Royal Shakespeare Company ). His return to Shakespeare for
13205-568: The latter he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor . With his characteristic liking for switching between modern roles and the classics, his next stage part was Colonel Vershinin in Three Sisters in 1951. He headed a strong cast, with Renée Asherson , Margaret Leighton and Celia Johnson as the sisters, but reviewers found the production weakly directed, and some felt that Richardson failed to disguise his positive personality when playing
13344-399: The meaning of Godot, mentioned "a veteran racing cyclist, bald, a 'stayer', recurrent placeman in town-to-town and national championships, Christian name elusive, surname Godeau, pronounced, of course, no differently from Godot." Waiting for Godot is clearly not about track cycling, but it is said that Beckett himself did wait for French cyclist Roger Godeau [ fr ] (1920–2000;
13483-453: The most illustrious that has ever been assembled in this country". The Times said that the triumvirate's years were the greatest in the Old Vic's history; as The Guardian put it, "the governors summarily sacked them in the interests of a more mediocre company spirit". For Richardson, parting company with the Old Vic brought the advantage of being free, for the first time, to earn substantial pay. The company's highest salary had been £40
13622-564: The next two years Richardson appeared in six plays in London ranging from Peter Pan (as Mr Darling and Captain Hook) to Cornelius , an allegorical play written for and dedicated to him by J. B. Priestley . Cornelius ran for two months; this was less than expected, and left Richardson with a gap in engagements in the second half of 1935. He filled it by accepting an invitation from Katharine Cornell and Guthrie McClintic to play Mercutio in their production of Romeo and Juliet on
13761-488: The overprotective father of Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress , based on Henry James 's novel Washington Square . The film did not prosper at the box-office despite good reviews, an Academy Award for Best Actress for Havilland, and nominations for the director ( William Wyler ) and Richardson. The Heiress had been a Broadway play before it was a film. Richardson so liked his part that he decided to play it in
13900-498: The part hitherto "seem to have thought Bottom, with the ass's head on, was the same Bottom, only funnier. Shakespeare says he was 'translated', and Mr Richardson translated him." With Sybil Thorndike as a guest star and Richardson as Ralph, The Knight of the Burning Pestle was a hit with audiences and critics, as was a revival of Twelfth Night , with Edith Evans as Viola and Richardson again playing Sir Toby, finishing
14039-645: The play for the Schiller-Theater in Berlin in 1975. Although he had overseen many productions, this was the first time that he had taken complete control. Walter Asmus was his conscientious young assistant director. The production was not naturalistic. Beckett explained, It is a game, everything is a game. When all four of them are lying on the ground, that cannot be handled naturalistically. That has got to be done artificially, balletically. Otherwise everything becomes an imitation, an imitation of reality [...]. It should become clear and transparent, not dry. It
14178-498: The play in French, and if I did have that meaning in my mind, it was somewhere in my unconscious and I was not overtly aware of it." (Note: the French word for 'God' is 'Dieu'.) However, "Beckett has often stressed the strong unconscious impulses that partly control his writing; he has even spoken of being 'in a trance ' when he writes." While Beckett stated he originally had no knowledge of Balzac 's play Mercadet ou le faiseur , whose character Godeau has an identical-sounding name and
14317-416: The play's recurring themes, which is sleep. There are two instances when Estragon falls asleep in the play and has nightmares, about which he wanted to tell Vladimir when he woke. The latter refuses to hear it since he could not tolerate the sense of entrapment experienced by the dreamer during each episode. This idea of entrapment supports the view that the setting of the play may be understood more clearly as
14456-478: The play, Beckett has said the title was suggested to him by the slang French term for boot: " godillot , godasse ". The second story, according to Bair, is that Beckett once encountered a group of spectators at the French Tour de France bicycle race, who told him "Nous attendons Godot" – they were waiting for a competitor whose name was Godot. "Beckett said to Peter Woodthorpe that he regretted calling
14595-633: The point of paralysis", though blaming the director more than the star. Richardson's third and final role in the Stratford season, Volpone in Ben Jonson 's play, received much better, but not ecstatic, notices. He did not play at Stratford again. Back in the West End, Richardson was in another Sherriff play, The White Carnation , in 1953, and in November of the same year he and Gielgud starred together in N. C. Hunter 's A Day by
14734-421: The provinces, with Sybil Thorndike at its head. By 1944, with the tide of the war turning, Guthrie felt it time to re-establish the company in a London base, and invited Richardson to head it. Richardson made two stipulations: first, as he was unwilling to seek his own release from the forces, the governing board of the Old Vic should explain to the authorities why it should be granted; secondly, that he should share
14873-430: The rational principle. Godot fulfills the function of the superego or moral standards. Pozzo and Lucky are just re-iterations of the main protagonists. Dukore finally sees Beckett's play as a metaphor for the futility of man's existence when salvation is expected from an external entity, and the self is denied introspection." "The four archetypal personalities or the four aspects of the soul are grouped in two pairs:
15012-697: The run of Yellow Sands in March 1928 and rejoined Ayliff, playing Pygmalion in Back to Methuselah at the Royal Court Theatre ; also in the cast was a former colleague from the Birmingham Repertory, Laurence Olivier . The critics began to notice Richardson and he gained some favourable reviews. As Tranio in Ayliff's modern-dress production of The Taming of the Shrew , Richardson played
15151-752: The same reason, in O'Connor's view, that he never attempted the title roles in Hamlet or King Lear . Richardson made his television debut in January 1939, reprising his 1936 stage role of the chief engineer in Bees on the Boatdeck . His last stage part in the 1930s was Robert Johnson, an Everyman figure, in Priestley's Johnson Over Jordan directed by Basil Dean . It was an experimental piece, using music (by Benjamin Britten ) and dance as well as dialogue, and
15290-585: The season to renewed praise. Richardson returned to the Malvern Festival in August 1932. He was in four plays, the last of which, Bernard Shaw 's Too True to Be Good , transferred to the New Theatre in London the following month. The play was not liked by audiences and ran for only forty-seven performances, but Richardson, in Agate's phrase, "ran away with the piece", and established himself as
15429-573: The second syllable, / ɡ ə ˈ d oʊ / gə- DOH . Beckett himself said the emphasis should be on the first syllable, and that the North American pronunciation is a mistake. Georges Borchardt, Beckett's literary agent, and who represents Beckett's literary estate, has always pronounced "Godot" in the French manner, with equal emphasis on both syllables. Borchardt checked with Beckett's nephew, Edward, who told him his uncle pronounced it that way as well. The 1956 Broadway production split
15568-460: The stone", preoccupied with mundane things such as what he can get to eat and how to ease his physical aches and pains; he is direct, intuitive. The monotonous, ritualistic means by which Estragon continuously sits upon the stone may be likened to the constant nail filing carried out by Winnie in Happy Days , another of Beckett's plays, both actions representing the slow, deliberate erosion of
15707-464: The subject of much debate. "When Colin Duckworth asked Beckett point-blank whether Pozzo was Godot, the author replied: 'No. It is just implied in the text, but it's not true. ' " Deirdre Bair says that though "Beckett will never discuss the implications of the title", she suggests two stories that both may have at least partially inspired it. The first is that because feet are a recurring theme in
15846-485: The text, though they are often performed in tramps’ costumes on stage. Roger Blin advises: "Beckett heard their voices, but he couldn't describe his characters to me. [He said]: 'The only thing I'm sure of is that they're wearing bowlers . ' " "The bowler hat was of course de rigueur for men in many social contexts when Beckett was growing up in Foxrock , and [his father] commonly wore one." The play does indicate that
15985-407: The theories of existentialism assert that conscious reality is very complex and without an "objective" or universally known value: the individual must create value by affirming it and living it, not by simply talking about it or philosophising it in the mind. The play may be seen to touch on all of these issues. Martin Esslin , in his The Theatre of the Absurd (1960), argued that Waiting for Godot
16124-579: The title Godot . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Godot&oldid=1207791089 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Waiting for Godot Waiting for Godot ( / ˈ ɡ ɒ d oʊ / GOD -oh or / ɡ ə ˈ d oʊ / gə- DOH )
16263-410: The title role. During the run of Cyrano , Richardson was knighted in the 1947 New Year Honours , to Olivier's undisguised envy. The younger man received the accolade six months later, by which time the days of the triumvirate were numbered. The high profile of the two star actors did not endear them to the new chairman of the Old Vic governors, Lord Esher . He had ambitions to be the first head of
16402-482: The tree, which has grown a number of leaves since it was last seen in Act 1. Both men are still awaiting Godot. Lucky and Pozzo eventually reappear, but not as they were previously. Pozzo has become blind and Lucky is now fully mute. Pozzo cannot recall ever having met Vladimir and Estragon, who themselves cannot agree on when they last saw the travellers. Lucky and Pozzo exit shortly after their spirited encounter, leaving Vladimir and Estragon to go on waiting. Soon after,
16541-591: The urge to act in a modern work. He left Doran in 1923 and toured in a new play, Outward Bound by Sutton Vane . He returned to the classics in August 1924, in Nigel Playfair 's touring production of The Way of the World , playing Fainall. While on that tour he married Muriel Hewitt, a young member of Doran's company, known to him as "Kit". To his great happiness, the two were able to work together for most of 1925, both being engaged by Sir Barry Jackson of
16680-401: The warrior Hotspur in the first and the doddering Justice Shallow in the second. He received good notices, but by general consent the production belonged to Richardson as Falstaff. Agate wrote, "He had everything the part wants – the exuberance, the mischief, the gusto. ... Here is something better than virtuosity in character-acting – the spirit of the part shining through the actor." As
16819-464: The writer places his fictional characters. The play "exploits several archetypal forms and situations, all of which lend themselves to both comedy and pathos ." Beckett makes this point emphatically clear in the opening notes to Film : "No truth value attaches to the above, regarded as of merely structural and dramatic convenience." He made another important remark to Lawrence Harvey , saying that his "work does not depend on experience – [it is] not
16958-482: The wrong people as well as engaging in pranks that alarmed his superiors. His paternal grandmother died and left him £500, which, he later said, transformed his life. He resigned from the office post, just in time to avoid being dismissed, and enrolled at the Brighton School of Art . His studies there convinced him that he lacked creativity, and that his drawing skills were not good enough. Richardson left
17097-520: The year her condition worsened and in October she died. He was intensely lonely, though the camaraderie of naval life was some comfort. In 1944 he married again. His second wife was the actress Meriel Forbes , a member of the Forbes-Robertson theatrical family. The marriage brought him lifelong happiness and a son, Charles (1945–98), who became a television stage manager. During the war Richardson compered occasional morale-boosting shows at
17236-408: The young West End star John Gielgud to lead the drama company. For the following season Williams wanted Richardson to join, with a view to succeeding Gielgud from 1931 to 1932. Richardson agreed, though he was not sure of his own suitability for a mainly Shakespearean repertoire, and was not enthusiastic about working with Gielgud: "I found his clothes extravagant, I found his conversation flippant. He
17375-430: The youthful Pozzo and Lucky. Thus Godot is compassion and fails to arrive every day, as he says he will. No-one is concerned that a boy is beaten. In this interpretation, there is the irony that only by changing their hearts to be compassionate can the characters fixed to the tree move on and cease to have to wait for Godot. Ralph Richardson Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983)
17514-511: Was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier , was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He worked in films throughout most of his career, and played more than sixty cinema roles. From an artistic but not theatrical background, Richardson had no thought of a stage career until a production of Hamlet in Brighton inspired him to become an actor. He learned his craft in
17653-576: Was another production in which Richardson was widely praised but that did not prosper at the box-office. After it closed, in May 1939, he did not act on stage for more than five years. At the outbreak of war Richardson joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a sub-lieutenant pilot. He had taken flying lessons during the 1930s and had logged 200 hours of flying time, but, though a notoriously reckless driver, he admitted to being
17792-615: Was in Silver Wings in the West End and on tour. It was not a personal triumph; the director's final injunction to the company was, "For God's sake don't let Richardson sing". In May 1930 Richardson was given the role of Roderigo in Othello in what seemed likely to be a prestigious production, with Paul Robeson in the title role. The biographer Ronald Hayman writes that though a fine singer, "Robeson had no ear for blank verse" and even Peggy Ashcroft 's superb performance as Desdemona
17931-569: Was left of the legacy from his grandmother, Richardson determined to learn to act. He paid a local theatrical manager, Frank R. Growcott, ten shillings a week to take him as a member of his company and to teach him the craft of an actor. He made his stage debut in December 1920 with Growcott's St Nicholas Players at the St Nicholas Hall, Brighton, a converted bacon factory. He played a gendarme in an adaptation of Les Misérables and
18070-685: Was not enough to save the production from failure. Ashcroft's notices were laudatory, while Richardson's were mixed; they admired each other and worked together frequently during the next four decades. In 1930 Richardson, with some misgivings, accepted an invitation to join The Old Vic company. The theatre, in an unfashionable location south of the Thames , had offered inexpensive tickets for opera and drama under its proprietor Lilian Baylis since 1912. Its profile had been raised considerably by Baylis's producer, Harcourt Williams , who in 1929 persuaded
18209-642: Was often seen as detached from conventional ways of looking at the world, and his acting was regularly described as poetic or magical. Richardson was born in Cheltenham , Gloucestershire, the third son and youngest child of Arthur Richardson and his wife Lydia ( née Russell ) on 19 December 1902. The couple had met while both were in Paris, studying with the painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau . Arthur Richardson had been senior art master at Cheltenham Ladies' College from 1893. She eloped with me, then aged four. Richardson on his mother's breakup of
18348-524: Was part of a broader literary movement that he called the Theatre of the Absurd , a form of theatre that stemmed from the absurdist philosophy of Albert Camus . Absurdism itself is a branch of the traditional assertions of existentialism, pioneered by Søren Kierkegaard , and posits that, while inherent meaning might very well exist in the universe, human beings are incapable of finding it due to some form of mental or philosophical limitation. Thus, humanity
18487-462: Was recruited in his place. Matters improved astonishingly; the production was a complete success and ran in London for 644 performances. After one long run in The Heiress , Richardson appeared in another, R. C. Sherriff 's Home at Seven , in 1950. He played an amnesiac bank clerk who fears he may have committed murder. He later recreated the part in a radio broadcast, and in
18626-583: Was soon entrusted with larger parts, including Banquo in Macbeth and Malvolio in Twelfth Night . The heyday of the touring actor-manager was nearing its end but some companies still flourished. As well as Benson's, there were those of Sir John Martin-Harvey , Ben Greet , and, only slightly less prestigious, Charles Doran . Richardson wrote to all four managers: the first two did not reply; Greet saw him but had no vacancy; Doran engaged him, at
18765-890: Was the New Young Man of his time and I didn't like him." The first production of the season was Henry IV, Part 1 , with Gielgud as Hotspur and Richardson as Prince Hal; the latter was thought by The Daily Telegraph "vivacious, but a figure of modern comedy rather than Shakespeare." Richardson's notices, and the relationship of the two leading men, improved markedly when Gielgud, who was playing Prospero , helped Richardson with his performance as Caliban in The Tempest : He gave me about two hundred ideas, as he usually does, twenty-five of which I eagerly seized on, and when I went away I thought, "This chap, you know, I don't like him very much but by God he knows something about this here play." ... And then out of that we formed
18904-568: Was the co-director of the Old Vic company. There, his most celebrated roles included Peer Gynt and Falstaff . He and Olivier led the company to Europe and Broadway in 1945 and 1946, before their success provoked resentment among the governing board of the Old Vic, leading to their dismissal from the company in 1947. In the 1950s, in the West End and occasionally on tour, Richardson played in modern and classic works including The Heiress , Home at Seven , and Three Sisters . He continued on stage and in films until shortly before his sudden death at
19043-483: Was to be mounted at the Haymarket Theatre in the West End , Richardson and his wife were both cast in good roles. The play opened in November 1926 and ran until September 1928; with 610 performances it was the longest London run of Richardson's entire career. During the run Muriel Hewitt began to show early symptoms of encephalitis lethargica , a progressive and ultimately fatal illness. Richardson left
19182-542: Was too lazy to be a painter ... I hadn't the persistency – but then I hadn't got very much talent. Richardson on his time at art school In 1919, aged sixteen, Richardson took a post as office boy with the Brighton branch of the Liverpool Victoria insurance company. The pay, ten shillings a week, was attractive, but office life was not; he lacked concentration, frequently posting documents to
19321-405: Was willing to co-operate, but Richardson was not; audiences and most critics failed to spot the supposed motivation of Olivier's Iago, and Richardson's Othello seemed underpowered. O'Connor believes that Richardson did not succeed with Othello or Macbeth because of the characters' single-minded "blind driving passion – too extreme, too inhuman", which was incomprehensible and alien to him. It was for
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