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Chapter Text

A country road.

A tree.

Late afternoon.

Estragon’s boots are front and center once again. Estragon stands over them, contemplating. Lucky’s hat sits in the same place. 

Enter Vladimir. He looks at the tree for a beat, taking in its familiarity. He then stalks around the perimeter of the stage, pausing at each prop item and scrutinizing them briefly. Agitated now, he comes to stand next Estragon, deep in focus.

VLADIMIR: I don’t think they will be walking off without you any time soon.

ESTRAGON: Quiet.

VLADIMIR: What for?

ESTRAGON: Quiet!

They both sit in silence for an uncomfortable beat.

VLADIMIR: What for?

ESTRAGON: I’m trying to decide if I should put them on.

VLADIMIR: Your boots?

ESTRAGON: Yes.

VLADIMIR: Why wouldn’t you, your feet will grow cold in the evening, and we will still be waiting by then I think.

ESTRAGON: But I took them off at one point. If I take them off, I’ll just have to put them on again. 

VLADIMIR: True. And perhaps Godot will come by then.

ESTRAGON: Godot?

VLADIMIR: Yes.

ESTRAGON: When he comes, will I need them?

VLADIMIR: The boots?

ESTRAGON: Yeah, will I need them?

VLADIMIR: I suppose not. 

ESTRAGON: And he is coming tonight?
VLADIMIR: To be sure.

ESTRAGON: Then I have no need for them. I can just sit until he does. It is almost dusk anyways.

Vladimir contemplates the darkening sky.

VLADIMIR: Gogo, are we sure he is coming?

ESTRAGON: You have said so.

VLADIMIR: (to himself) I have, haven’t I?

Estragon retires under the tree and takes off his hat. 

ESTRAGON: (yawning) You don’t suppose you could keep watch for him, Didi? All this thinking has made me drowsy. And I suppose I don’t know what he looks like anyways.

VLADIMIR: I told you, we’ll know him when we see him.

ESTRAGON: (already closing his eyes) Even so, I would just forget.

VLADIMIR: As you did yesterday?

ESTRAGON: Did I? That is why I have you, I suppose.

VLADIMIR: You’ve done a lot of supposing today.

Estragon is asleep. 

Vladimir grunts half in annoyance and half in fondness. He paces for a couple beats as if taking in his surroundings a second time. Then, he gingerly finds Estragons discarded hat. He examines it closely, running his fingers along its brim. He gasps slightly, discovering a hole in the top of Estragon’s hat– a product of either time or misuse. 

VLADIMIR: [to himself]  Is this why he rests so soundly? 

Vladimir moves towards Lucky’s hat and picks it up too. With his back to the audience, he holds both hats up to the light. Lucky’s hat casts a pristine silhouette while Estragon’s broken hat emits a ray of light out of its torn interior.

VLADIMIR: Is it one’s logic that fells him to madness? Maybe this is the source my restlessness, distracting me from my waiting. 

Vladimir sets both hats down and takes off his own. He closes his eyes and is still for a beat, as if paralyzed. Then, he cracks one eye open and looks around warily.

VLADIMIR: It does not seem to be working. But perhaps a moment longer.

Vladimir stands still again, but much more tense this time. The hand holding his hat shakes vigorously and his brow is furrowed in concentration.

Suddenly, in a burst of movement he cries out, throwing his hat on the ground. He glares at it for a moment before stamping his foot into his interior. He repeats this motion several times, in a rage. 

Estragon stirs but miraculously does not wake. 

VLADIMIR: Gah! Why can I not lose the days like he does! Look how peacefully he rests not bearing the weight of a thousand afternoons. 

Vladimir gives his hat one last kick before turning his back to it. 

VLADIMIR: [defeatedly] Nothing can be done then. 

Estragon stirs and sits up, eyeing Vladimir and his crumpled hat. A worker from offstage shuffles quietly in and removes Estragon’s boots from the stage.

ESTRAGON: Didi, what happened? Is it Gonzo… Godough…

VLADIMIR: No, only my hat.

Estragon catches sign of Vladimir’s discarded hat. At the same moment, stagehands pull the tree off-stage quietly.

ESTRAGON: Wait, why don’t you wear it?

VLADIMIR: It is like your boots I suppose.

They both glance to where Estragon’s boots were. 

ESTRAGON: Boots?

VLADIMIR: Yes. Yours! They were right there.

ESTRAGON: If I had boots, wouldn’t I be wearing them?

VLADIMIR: Yes… but you took them off to wait. 

ESTRAGON: If you say so. I don’t recall. 

VLADIMIR: They were there a minute ago!

Vladimir stalks to where the boots were, pacing back and forth increasingly confused. Estragon shoots him a puzzled glance before reclining absentmindedly. He falls asleep again.

Stagehands move Estragon and Lucky’s hat while Vladimir is preoccupied with the missing boots. Just as he turns back, they disappear from view. 

VLADIMIR: [shaking Estragon awake] Gogo! Wake up! Where did they go?! The hats!

ESTRAGON: [cross] What hats you loon? If I had a hat it would be on my head would it not?  Let me pass the time in peace!

Estragon closes his eyes again and the stage lights shut off, leaving only a slight haze of diffused light to illuminate the two figures.

VLADIMIR: GOGO! Its gone. The sunlight, the sky!

ESTRAGON: [groggily] Was it not always this way?

VLADIMIR: No you dolt! Do you not see we stand in the unrecognizable?

ESTRAGON: You have been on about a quite many things today Didi, are you certain?

VLADIMIR: I am! I-

Pozzo enters with Lucky in tow. The pair move noticeably slower due to Pozzo’s blindness.

VLADIMIR: You there! Pozzo! You passed through here yesterday. Does it not look different than before? I’m not crazy.

POZZO: What? It looks the same as every day has. 

VLADIMIR: [very agitated now] Take a look around! Where is… well, everything!

POZZO: Boy, your vision must be worse than mine.

Pozzo and Lucky exit as quickly as they come. 

The boy from the previous two days enters the stage. Vladimir approaches him in a panicked state. Estragon hangs back lazily

VLADIMIR: Boy! Come here. Does this place not look different?

BOY: Sir, I have never been here before. 

VLADIMIR: [resigned now] Do you… do you remember me? 

BOY: No sir, I don’t.

VLADIMIR: [wearily] It is as it always is. But I won’t need you to once he comes.

BOY: Mr. Godot?

VLADIMIR: Yes. I am waiting for him. But you know that.

BOY: I do. Unfortunately he can’t come this evening. 

VLADIMIR: But tomorrow? For certain this time?

BOY: You have said so.

The boy hurriedly tries to exit the stage but Vladimir reaches out to stop him.

VLADIMIR: Please! There is nothing left. How long am I to wait? Is there even a good enough reason to wait?

Estragon gets up and approaches both of them. He winces a bit as he walks without his boots. Taking Vladimir’s shoulder lightly, he pulls him back from the boy.

ESTRAGON: We could always leave this place. To hell with waiting?

Vladimir pauses and looks at their surroundings before shaking his head wearily.

VLADIMIR: We can’t, you know we can’t. 

Vladimir gestures widely to the empty stage.

VLADIMIR: Even if we did, what would we do without hats?

ESTRAGON: Without boots

VLADIMIR AND ESTRAGON: Without bearings.

They both stand there in the dim light, their silhouettes contemplative.

ESTRAGON: So what do we do now?

VLADIMIR: We wait. We must.

Chapter Text

Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot centers around Vladimir and Estragon, two friends seemingly trapped in a loop of indecision and inaction in wait for an elusive figure named “Godot.” Beckett contemplates philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s claim that “existence precedes essence,” arguing that our purpose in life is not predetermined, but realized individually as we live. Life is inherently meaningless, he posits, and waiting for a larger meaning to be presented to us by a higher power will leave us paralyzed, just as Vladimir and Estragon are in the play. In my creative addition, I aimed to expand upon Beckett’s ideas on the meaninglessness of life through the musings of characters, manipulations, and stage directions.

The scene starts similarly to the other two acts, with the same setting of the tree, boots, and characters. This is to continue the established cyclical nature of Vladimir and Estragon’s lives. Estragon is seen standing over his boots, contemplating them. When questioned by Vladimir, he reveals he is trying to decide if he should put them on. His rationale is that he had once taken them off, and putting them on again would be meaningless if he had to take them off again. To a person in real life, this would seem ludicrous because taking off and putting on shoes is just a reality. However, in Estragon’s position, it is understandable because he does practically nothing every day while he waits with Vladimir for Godot. I chose to have him verbalize this decision to show how his blind faith in Godot demotivated him from performing commonplace tasks, even if it came as a detriment to his everyday function. Additionally, Estragon’s boots are one of the few costume pieces that define his character, so his leaving them behind also signified him leaving a part of his identity. Estragon is the half of the pair that is characterized as simplistic and forgetful, so his actions are a warning of the outcome of relinquishing the determination of one’s “purpose” to an outside party instead of trying to define it for yourself. 

After Estragon falls asleep (boot-less), Vladimir examines Estragon’s hat and discovers a hole in the top. Intrigued, he retrieves Lucky’s hate and compares them side-by-side. He wonders if the hole in Estragon’s hat is “why he rests so soundly,” alluding to Estragon’s memory loss and overall simplistic thinking. As Vladimir holds both hats up to the light, their silhouettes illustrate the difference between Estragon’s hat and Lucky’s intact one. In the previous act, Lucky’s hat seemed to be the source of Lucky’s eloquent monologue of complex thought, creating an association between an intact hat and the existence of critical thinking or logic. Vladimir makes this association and blames his “logic” for the madness he feels as he waits for Godot. In an attempt to rid himself of his thinking, he tries removing his hat. However, after two failed attempts, he throws his hat down in a rage and tries to stamp a hole similar to Estragon’s. Intellect and critical thinking are things most people seek to possess, but because he is stuck lying in wait, Vladimir would rather lose his ability to understand the world than keep living in the paralyzed state he is in. Additionally, I had Estragon fall asleep before this scene to isolate Vladimir, emphasizing the loneliness he feels as the only one who can comprehend the never-ending cycle of waiting. Going forward, every time Vladimir experiences something troubling, Estragon is asleep, mirroring all the times Estragon is with him in presence but not in understanding.

As the scene progresses, the minimal props onstage disappear. Each time it happens, Vladimir becomes increasingly bewildered while Estragon seems to forget their existence in the first place. In the first instance, Estragon’s boots disappear and when Vladimir points it out Estragon seems to have no memory of them. I wrote this specific disappearance to make two points. First, I wanted to call back to Estragon’s choice to leave boots behind earlier in the scene. His memory slip indicates the unimportance of the boots in his mind, further solidifying the idea of losing one's identity and motivation for day-to-day living when waiting on the purpose of a higher power. Second, Vladimir’s desperate attempt to make Estragon realize the disappearance emphasizes his loneliness caused by his perceptiveness. 

The disappearances of the hats and the tree follow, inciting more of the same. Vladimir shakes a sleeping Estragon awake only for Estragon to not be able to recognize the changes in their setting. The disappearance of the hats is notable because Estragon is the only one left in the scene with a hat. Even though he desperately tried to rid himself of his thinking, it is ingrained in his nature to forever perceive the endless cycle he is stuck in. I wanted to exacerbate the difference between Vladimir and Estragon through the final disappearance of Estragon’s hat to show that this bleak fate happens in many different ways, whether you notice it happening or are oblivious to it. As Vladimir and Estragon give up their agency in waiting for Godot, they lose the ability to perceive their environment. The disappearances reiterate Vladimir’s loneliness because he is the only one seeing what is happening and each time Estragon refuses to believe his claims.

The last disappearance comes in the form of the light of the stage, leaving the characters in almost darkness. However, the play and its characters go on. I wrote this stage direction to present a couple of ideas. First, I wanted to visually create the idea of running out of time. Traditionally, the dimming of stage lights normally marks the end of a play, meaning the characters have run out of time for the story, having spent all of it simply waiting. Essentially, Vladimir and Estragon wasted their time waiting for their purpose in Godot; they ran out of time to live. Also, in the end, they never end up meeting Godot, meaning all of the time they spent waiting amounted to nothing. The reader is meant to learn from their mistakes by defining the meaning of their existence for themselves rather than spending their lives anticipating it to be given to them. Another intention for the loss of the stage lights comes with the entrance of Pozzo. In previous scenes, it is revealed that he has become blind. His appearance is almost comical as he clumsily tries to navigate the stage with Lucky in tow. However, in the darkness of the stage, Pozzo remarks that the setting looks the same as any other day, revealing that all the characters are now as blind as Pozzo. Vladimir and Estragon are blinded by their faith in Godot’s arrival, which is manifested now in the darkness of the stage.

The final purpose behind the disappearance of light was to highlight the difficulty of breaking out of the cycle of waiting, even if you realize its meaninglessness. When Boy arrives, Vladimir questions him about Mr. Godot once again. After he receives the same negative response, Vladimir questions if he should be waiting at all. However, after looking around at the dark empty stage, Vladimir realizes there is nothing left to do but wait. There is no longer a tree to hang himself, a road to walk on, or even articles of clothing around to keep him entertained. There is nothing left for him to do and nowhere left for him to go. In basing his existence on the expectation of essence, he not only lost the time to make his own meaning but the tools to do so. In the ending lines, Estragon asks what they are to do now and Vladimir answers “We wait. We must.” His unshakable faith in Godot is now not only by choice but necessity.

In my extended scene of Waiting for Godot, I explored the themes of identity, existentialism, and the futility of blind faith. Through the symbolism of disappearing props and an absentee Godot, I conveyed the dangers of losing the opportunity for agency and definition of one's purpose through an external source. My addition to Waiting for Godot argues that when we are blinded by our faith in a predetermined purpose, we lose the chance to live our own lives. Like Godot, no essence will come to us in the end, leaving our time in existence meaningless.