The Godot Diaries

A fascinating, behind-the-scenes diary account of working on a major production of Beckett’s iconic play from acclaimed actor Lucian Msamati. From his agent’s phone call offering him the role of Estragon, Lucian Msamati brings brilliantly to life the experience of co-starring with Ben Whishaw in James Macdonald’s celebrated production of Waiting for Godot in London’s West End. With the likes of Jonathan Slinger as Pozzo and Tom Edden as Lucky, this production has some of today’s finest theatre actors bringing new life and meaning to Beckett’s 1949 play. Through rehearsal room highs and lows, workaday laughs and tears, literal stumbles and grumbles, we journey with Lucian, his fellow actors and creatives, and Beckett’s play, sharing in the personal and dramaturgical discoveries they make and the inevitable emotional contours of an experience as intense as this one. As the final curtain comes down (and Lucian’s trousers, too, as it happens) after the production’s four-month run, we feel intimately connected with Beckett’s elusive play and characters, slightly more able to navigate the play’s surprising twists and turns, and with a renewed sense of appreciation for the work and graft of an actor and all that comes with it.