Forget Keanu: Ulster Scots translation of Beckett classic takes on spate of celebrity Godots | Samuel Beckett
In a bleak high marsh, under a stark steel tree, a literary masterpiece is set to take on a different linguistic cover.
Samuel Beckett’s enigmatic tragicomedy, Waiting for Godot, will have its world premiere in Ulster Scots, which has been described as a “coming of age” for the minority language and the antithesis of the trend for the famous Godots.
On Good Friday, after a nearly 3km uphill walk, viewers will arrive at a spot on the vast volcanic Antrim Plateau in Northern Ireland, surely empathizing with Estragon’s physical discomfort as he struggles to take off his ill-fitting boots, even if he does not have foot pain.
Festival organizer Seán Doran said the “existential landscape of swamp, moss and marsh” in County Antrim lends itself to a scenario “enriched with external references”. Art Beyond Borders, The production is being staged as part of the Samuel Beckett Biennial, a major new arts festival.
But Doran said that although there had been outdoor productions before, the “powerful pronunciation and sound” of presenting this for the first time in Ulster Scots, or Ullans, and in an area where the language was spoken, would “bring in a completely new register” and change the whole performance aspect of the play.
one in october Ulster-Scots commissioner appointed Under the Identity and Language Act in Northern Ireland, it will serve as cultural protection for the language, which has its roots in the early 17th-century plantations of Scots speakers in the north of Ireland.
Frank Ferguson, who translated the play in this environment, praised its performance as “a great coming-of-age moment”. “It shows confidence in what Ulster-Scots can do as a language, because you’re taking one of the great global dramatic phenomena and putting it into Ulster-Scots translation.”
The title of the work is Ettlin Fur Godot, and the famous stage directions “A country road. A tree. Evening” will be translated as “A loan. A tree. Dailygan”. Ferguson, research director of the Center for Irish and Scots Studies at the University of Ulster, suggested viewers might heed Ulster Scots, who have many words with similar roots to English, but translations could be provided.
Ferguson sees it not as a dialect but as a language “discovering itself and trying to find its way in the world” following the Good Friday agreement. And he said it worked “beautifully” in the Godot setting.
At least “the feeling of waiting, hoping and longing for something; all minority languages long for that kind of moment of salvation, that moment of revelation. So looking at a Godot-like figure or moment, hoping and wishing, I think works very well in Ulster Scots, because in a sense it’s waiting for the moment of living and finding itself again.”
It will take place on Good Friday, April 3, 2026 (Beckett was born on Good Friday) and will form part of the new Beckett Biennial, which will experiment with unexpected approaches over the next 10 years, including translations in Aboriginal Noongar, Sami and Inuit languages, and productions starring homeless actors.
Arts Over Borders, producers of cross-border north-south arts festivals, aim to bring Godot back to its original roots, having premiered in French in Paris in 1953 and in London and Dublin two years later. The biennial aims to be the antithesis of the current trend towards productions starring big names.
Keanu Reeves is the latest Hollywood star currently performing on Broadway; Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, Bill Patterson and Brian Cox, Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati, and double acts such as Robin Williams and Steve Martin are others who have risen to the challenge.
Doran admires the “famous Godot” as a tool that spreads the news more effectively than anything else. But he believes this may diminish other perspectives, possibilities and insights. “That’s clearly what we’re trying to do through the different languages, the open-air setting, and the homeless actors.”
The Samuel Beckett Biennial will take place in rural and urban settings in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and England in 2026 and return in 2028.
