If in the next few months you hear the sound of grim laughter on New York sidewalks, it’s because three plays by the legendary grim laugher Samuel Beckett will be presented on Manhattan stages this fall.
First up is a production that I must admit I find a stroke of genius: Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, of Bill and Ted fame, will be putting Vladimir (Winter) and Estragon (Reeves) through their paces in a Broadway production of Waiting for Godot. Starting previews this Saturday night, Jamie Lloyd’s production runs through January 2026, and good luck getting tickets for this one. Everything that I’ve read about this production suggests that the staging will be pretty straight-forward, but I’ve also heard rumors that the set itself — a tree, a mound — will also feature a distinctly non-Beckettian element. We shall see. Melena Ryzik spoke to the actors and the director in this New York Times profile.
Further downtown, Krapp’s Last Tape at NYU’s Skirball Center will throw its “strong white light” on the excellent Stephen Rea starting on October 8 for a limited engagement that ends on October 19. Directed by Vicky Featherstone for the Barbican, this production follows on the Irish Rep’s presentation of F. Murray Abraham in the same role last season. Collectors of Krapps will want to add this one to their galleries too. (If you’re new to this, you can start your own collection with Harold Pinter’s 2006 performance at the Royal Court Theatre.)
Later in October, Beckett enthusiasts will take the subway to the Irish Arts Center in Hell’s Kitchen (appropriate, this) for Beckett’s grimmest and most difficult tragicomedy, Endgame, in a production by Beckett expert Garry Hynes and the Irish theater company Druid. No big names here (with the exception of Hynes’), but it may not be a surprise to find this the most promising of the three. It opens on October 22 and runs through November 23.
It seems that Sam Beckett is newly new again in these fraught times. See you at the theatre.