Forget Keanu: Ulster Scots translation of Beckett’s classic seizes wave of celebrity Godots | Samuel Beckett

Under a stark steel tree in a bleak high moor, a literary masterpiece is destined to take on a different linguistic mantle.

Samuel Beckett’s dark tragicomedy Waiting for Godot will have its world premiere at Ulster Scots, a moment described as a “coming of age” for the minority language, and the antithesis of the mainstream celebrity Godot.

On Good Friday, after an arduous trek of around 3km, the audience will arrive at a place on the vast volcanic Antrim Plateau in Northern Ireland that, if not embarrassed, then certainly sympathizes with the physical discomfort experienced by Estragon as he struggles to remove his ill-fitting shoes.

Sean Doran, of festival organizer Arts Across Borders, which is organizing the production as part of a major new arts festival, the Samuel Beckett Biennial, said County Antrim’s “existential landscape of meadows, mosses and moors” lends itself to a scenario “full of external references”.

But while there have been previous outdoor productions, it is the “powerful enunciation and voice” of presenting it in Ulster Scots, or Ullans, for the first time and in an area where the language is spoken, that will “bring a whole new overall register” and change the entire performance aspect of the play, Doran said.

In October, a Scots Language Commissioner was appointed in Ulster under the Northern Ireland Identity and Language Act to act as a cultural safeguard for the language, which has roots in early 17th-century Scots-speaking plantations in northern Ireland.

Against this backdrop, Frank Ferguson, who is translating the play, praised her performance as “a major coming-of-age moment.” “It shows confidence in what Scots-Wulster can do as a language, because you are taking one of the great global dramatic phenomena and putting it within its own Ulster-Scots translation.”

The working title is Ettlin Fur Godot, and his famous stage direction “Country Road. Tree. Evening” would be translated as “Loan. Tree. Dilijan.” Ferguson, director of research at the Center for Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Ulster, suggested that the public may develop an ear for Ulster Scots, which has many words with similar roots to English – but translations may be provided.

Ferguson considers it a language, not a dialect, one that in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement is “discovering itself and trying to find its way in the world.” He said it works “beautifully” in Godot.

Not least because of “the feeling of waiting and hoping and longing for something; all minority languages ​​long for that kind of moment of redemption, that moment of revelation. So, this searching and hoping and wishing for a Godot-like character or moment works very well I think with Ulster Scots because in a sense he’s waiting for his moment to live and find himself again.”

It will be shown on Good Friday, 3 April 2026 (Beckett was born on Good Friday), and is part of the new Beckett Biennial, which over the next ten years will experiment with unexpected approaches including translations in the indigenous languages ​​of Noongar, Sami, and Inuit, and productions starring homeless actors.

Arts Across Borders, a producer of North-South cross-border arts festivals, aims to return Godot to its original roots when it was first performed in French in Paris in 1953 and in London and Dublin two years later. The biennial aims to be a contrast to the current trend of productions starring big names.

Keanu Reeves is Hollywood’s newest star, currently performing on Broadway; Double acts like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, Bill Patterson and Brian Cox, Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati, Robin Williams and Steve Martin are others who have risen to the challenges.

Duran values ​​“Celebrity Godot” as a way to spread the word more effectively than anything else. But he believes it can detract from other perspectives, possibilities and visions. “And obviously that’s what we’re trying to do through different languages, outdoor settings, and homeless actors.”

The Samuel Beckett Biennial will be held in rural and urban areas of Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and England in 2026, and will return in 2028.