Dublin’s Gate Theatre celebrates 80th anniversary with Waiting for Godot tour

Published Thursday 15 May 2008 at 14:15 by Michael Quinn

Dublin’s Gate Theatre has announced details of its first all-Ireland tour as part of its 80th anniversary celebrations.

A revival of its acclaimed production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, directed by Walter Asmus, will visit 40 towns and cities in all 32 counties on both sides of the Irish border later this year.

First seen in 1987 and revived on several occasions, the production was last seen in Dublin and London in 2006 as part of the Gate’s Beckett Festival. Its latest incarnation has been made possible with funding from the Irish Arts Council, the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism and longtime sponsors Ulster Bank.

The cast of the original production have been reassembled for the tour and includes Stephen Brennan as Lucky, Barry McGovern as Vladimir, Johnny Murphy as Estragon and Alan Stanford as Pozzo.

The eight-week-long tour will assume a “hub-and-spoke format”, with the company travelling on a nightly basis to individual venues from a central location where it will stay for one week at a time. It is believed this is the first time this touring model has been employed in Ireland.

The tour will begin on September 2 in the Co Wexford town of Enniscorthy, where the Gate’s founders, Micheal MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards, first conceived the idea of the company, and end in Enniskillen, where Beckett attended school from 1920-23, in Co Fermanagh on October 26.