Godot
Godot
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
heo1128
Broadway Star Joined: 7/9/08
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
willep
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/08
LadyDramaturg2
Featured Actor Joined: 8/21/08
vlegra
Stand-by Joined: 11/7/07
Ed_Mottershead
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/20/05
#11re: Godot
Posted: 4/22/09 at 11:01pm
Somewhat off topic, but: "Waiting for Godot" is not a strictly accurare translation of the original French, which is "En Attendant Godot." The French captures the idea of what we do while waiting for Godot, who or whatever that is. "Waiting for Godot" somewhat distorts the intended meaning, IMO.
BroadwayEd
Updated On: 4/22/09 at 11:01 PM
#12re: Godot
Posted: 4/22/09 at 11:22pm
Traditionally, Guh-DOE.
This production, GOD-oh.
Actually, no. Almost all of the literature available on this play states that the correct pronunciation is, and always has been, GOD-oh, with a hard stress on the first syllable. This was the pronunciation which Beckett advocated and encouraged actors to use.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#15re: Godot
Posted: 4/23/09 at 12:57pm
The French pronunciation would be Guh-doe. And Beckett was supposedly inspired to write it while waiting for a French bicyclist (I think) named Godeaut (Guh-doe).
I know the traditional pronunciation in productions of the play is God-oh, but I've always said Guh-doe and can't break the habit now.
Nothing matters but knowing nothing matters. ~ Wicked
Everything in life is only for now. ~ Avenue Q
There is no future, there is no past. I live this moment as my last. ~ Rent
"He's a tramp, but I love him."
Everything in life is only for now. ~ Avenue Q
There is no future, there is no past. I live this moment as my last. ~ Rent
Byron Abens
Broadway Star Joined: 7/17/08
#18re: Godot
Posted: 5/3/09 at 3:29pm
NYTIMES:
Anthony Page of "Waiting for Godot" Teaches Us How to Pronounce Its Title
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/anthony-page-of-waiting-for-godot-teaches-us-how-to-pronounce-its-title/?ref=theater
Well GOD-dough is what Samuel Beckett said. Also, the word has to echo Pozzo. That?s the right pronunciation. Go-DOUGH is an Americanism, which isn?t what the play intended.
Updated On: 5/3/09 at 03:29 PM
#19re: Godot
Posted: 5/3/09 at 3:34pm
"Somewhat off topic, but: "Waiting for Godot" is not a strictly accurare translation of the original French, which is "En Attendant Godot." The French captures the idea of what we do while waiting for Godot, who or whatever that is. "Waiting for Godot" somewhat distorts the intended meaning, IMO."
Considering Beckett translated it himself, I don't think he'd pick a title that distorted his meaning.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#20re: Godot
Posted: 5/3/09 at 4:56pm
The confusion comes from the original American production with Zero Mostel, in which it was pronounced "Guh-DOH," as seen in this clip from a 1961 TV production with Lahr and Burgess Meredith (who, of course, later played the Penguin in Batman).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efjndFMHZ3A
"Let's go."
"We can't."
"Why not?"
"We're waiting for Guh-DOH."
Videos