Cancelled Beckett play to be staged in Amsterdam as new theatres step in

A production of Waiting for Godot that was cancelled over a decision to audition only men for its five male characters is to be staged in the Dutch cities of Amsterdam and Groningen, after new venues stepped in to host the Samuel Beckett play.

The decision to cancel the planned performances of the work by the absurdist Irish writer by its initial venue, the University of Groningen’s Usva student cultural centre, which deemed its male-only casting process to have been contrary to a inclusion policy, caused controversy in the Netherlands after it was reported by The Irish Times.

Director Oisín Moyne, 24, said the production team had approached new venues and had also received offers to host the play, and that three new venues have now been secured.

[ Irish director’s all-male Beckett play cancelled as only men could audition ]

The play is now set to premiere at Groningen’s Verwondering, a performance space on a ship, on April 7th, 8th, and 9th, before being staged at the city’s Der Aa-Theater on April 21st and 22nd. The production will then move to Amsterdam for a performance at its Badhuistheater on April 29th.

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“Thankfully now the madness has died down a bit and everybody’s had some time, and moving forward it’s heads down and back to work,” Moyne told The Irish Times.

“We have a lot of rehearsing and set-building, costume-making, and prop-making to do in the coming weeks and I think that everybody’s very excited that we’ve got some new locations and have been offered some absolutely fantastic opportunities.”

Waiting for Godot, the most famous work of the Theatre of the Absurd movement, depicts the interactions of five male characters as they await the arrival of the titular Godot, who never comes.

Beckett famously sued a Dutch production that tried to stage a version of the play with female characters in the 1980s, and since his death his estate is renowned for upholding his precise instructions about how the work should be staged.