Nothingness, emptiness, repetition, boredom: for better or for worse, Beckett refined these attributes throughout his career. But the result is far from lugubrious. “Godot” famously adopted the techniques of vaudeville and farce: hat-swapping, pratfalling, Laurel-and-Hardy-like banter, trousers falling down. The play's two protagonists suffer from mildly comical physical ailments: Vladimir has a weak bladder, Estragon aching, smelly feet. The tramps' wordplay and jokes, some good, some deliberately feeble, pepper the text like a musical leitmotif.
