He once recalled that when Sir Ralph Richardson "wanted the low-down on Pozzo, his home address and curriculum vitae, and seemed to make the forthcoming of this and similar information the condition of his condescending to illustrate the part of Vladimir ...

"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 – a substitution of form for essence, covering for reality", wrote Gerald Mast in The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies.

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 the characters' lives.

"[16] 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.

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'[70]) were played by two white actors, Bill Flynn and Peter Piccolo [...].

Graham Hassell writes, "[T]he intrusion of Pozzo and Lucky [...] seems like nothing more than 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.

[76] "Bernard Dukore develops a triadic theory in Didi, Gogo and 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.

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.

This reading is given further weight early in the first act when Estragon asks Vladimir what it is that he has requested from Godot:[83] Other explicit Christian elements that are mentioned in the play include, but are not limited to, repentance,[84] the Gospels,[85] a Saviour,[86] human beings made in God's image,[87] the cross,[88] and Cain and Abel.

The entire production was done on the thinnest of shoestring budgets; the large battered valise that Martin carried "was found among the city's refuse by the husband of the theatre dresser on his rounds as he worked clearing the dustbins",[120] for example.

The actor Peter Bull, who played Pozzo, recalls the reaction of that first night audience: Waves of hostility came whirling over the footlights, and the mass exodus, which was to form such a feature of the run of the piece, started quite soon after the curtain had risen.

"[135] "At the end of the year, the Evening Standard Drama Awards were held for the first time ... Feelings ran high and the opposition, led by Sir Malcolm Sargent, threatened to resign if Godot won [The Best New Play category].

"[136] On 27 April 1960, the BBC Third Programme broadcast the very first radio adaptation, directed by Donald McWhinnie, with Patrick Magee as Vladimir, Wilfrid Brambell as Estragon, Felix Felton as Pozzo, Donal Donnelly as Lucky and Jeremy Ward as The Boy.

[137] On 26 June 1961, Donald McWhinnie directed a production broadcast on BBC Television, with Jack MacGowran as Vladimir, Peter Woodthorpe as Estragon, Felix Felton as Pozzo, Timothy Bateson as Lucky and Mark Mileham as The Boy.

[138] On 5 February 1962, the BBC Home Service broadcast a radio production as part of the From the Fifties series, directed by Robin Midgley with Nigel Stock as Vladimir, Kenneth Griffith as Estragon, Philip Leaver as Pozzo, Andrew Sachs as Lucky and Terry Raven as The Boy.

However, low advance sales forced the play to be performed in Miami for two weeks in early January 1956 at the newly opened Coconut Grove Playhouse, where the audience was made up of vacationers.

[162] Also in May 1957, a production directed by Walter Biakel was staged at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago with Harvey Korman as Vladimir, Louis Zorich as Estragon, Moultrie Patten as Pozzo and Mike Nichols as Lucky.

[164] Waiting for Godot was first performed at the Stratford Festival in 1968 at the Avon Theatre in a production directed by William Hutt, with Powys Thomas as Vladimir, Eric Donkin as Estragon, James Blendick as Pozzo, Adrian Pecknold as Lucky and Douglas Birkenshaw as The Boy.

[165] The very first South African production was performed in 1955 at the Little Theatre in Cape Town, produced by Leonard Schach, with Gavin Haughton as Vladimir, Alec Bell as Estragon, Donald Inskip as Lucky, Gordon Roberts as Pazzo and Frank Rothgiesser as The Boy.

[169] In 1977, PBS broadcast an adaptation for television directed by Charles S. Dubin and performed by the Los Angeles Actors' Theatre, with Dana Elcar as Vladimir, Donald Moffat as Estragon, Ralph Waite as Pozzo and Bruce French as Lucky.

[170] On 4 September 1977, as part of the British television series Drama, the Open University filmed a production of Godot directed by Richard Callanan with Leo McKern as Estragon, Max Wall as Vladimir, Graham Crowden as Pozzo, Basil Clarke as Lucky and Toby Page as The Boy.

[171] In 1978, a production was staged by Walter Asmus at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City with Sam Waterston as Vladimir, Austin Pendleton as Estragon, Milo O'Shea as Lucky and Michael Egan as Pozzo.

[174] Also in 1980, a production was performed at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, directed by Donald Howarth, with John Kani ("Vladimir"), Winston Ntshona ("Estragon"), Pieter-Dirk Uys ("Pozzo"), Peter Piccolo ("Lucky") and Silamour Philander ("The Boy").

The 1984 Stratford Festival production of Waiting for Godot, directed by Leon Rubin, was performed at the Tom Patterson Theatre, with Brian Bedford as Vladimir, Edward Abenza as Estragon, Andreas Katsulas as Pozzo, Paul Zimet as Lucky and Adam Poynter as The Boy.

[175] The Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center was the site of a 1988 revival directed by Mike Nichols, featuring Robin Williams (Estragon), Steve Martin (Vladimir), Bill Irwin (Lucky), F. Murray Abraham (Pozzo), and Lukas Haas (boy).

With a limited run of seven weeks and an all-star cast, it was financially successful,[176] but the critical reception was not particularly favourable, with Frank Rich of The New York Times writing, "Audiences will still be waiting for a transcendent Godot long after the clowns at Lincoln Center, like so many others passing through Beckett's eternal universe before them, have come and gone.

In 1996, the Stratford Festival staged a production directed by Brian Bedford, with Stephen Ouimette as Estragon, Tom McCamus as Vladimir, James Blendick as Pozzo, Tim MacDonald as Lucky and Joe Dinicol as The Boy.

[184] Neil Armfield directed a controversial production in January 2003 with Max Cullen as Estragon, John Gaden as Vladimir, Boddan Koca as Pozzo and Steve Le Marquand as Lucky at Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre.

[186] On 16 April 2006, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a production directed by John Tydeman, with Sean Barrett as Vladimir, David Burke as Estragon, Nigel Anthony as Lucky and The Narrator, Terence Rigby as Pozzo and Zachary Fox as The Boy.

[196] A new production directed by Sean Mathias with Ian McKellen as Estragon, Patrick Stewart as Vladimir, Billy Crudup as Lucky and Shuler Hensley as Pozzo began previews at the Cort Theatre on Broadway on October 26, 2013, and ran from November 24, 2013, to March 30, 2014.