GODOT HAS COME
Written by Minoru Betsuyaku
Directed by K.Kiyama
Produced by Theatre Office Natori
Will be performed at Haiyu-za Theater, Roppongi from May 23-27, 2012
< The Plot >Evening. A telegraph post is on stage right. A bus stop sign and a bench are on stage left.
Estragon in shabby black clothes and hat carrying a shoe is trying to put off anothershoe. Vladimir in similar attire comes with a toy trumpet. Lucky with a chain aroundhis neck and Pozzo holding the chain appear just like those in Samuel Beckett’s Waitingfor Godot. But two young female receptionists and an elderly woman with a knitting set
join them here. Then a man named Godot with an umbrella arrives and abruptly
introduces himself to the receptionists, saying “I am Godot.” His arrival is too abrupt tobe recognized as Godot. Hereafter he tells Estragon and Vladimir that he is Godot every
time he has a chance, but they never react as he has expected. Godot “has finally come”
with no mistake but nothing changes with his arrival. There is no dramatic encounter.
Only laughter bursts in a vacant sight. This is a slapstick comedy – much more comic
than the original by Beckett. There lies Minoru Betsuyaku’s strong critical recognitionof the present society in this bold challenge. Betsuyaku, who has established theTheatre of the Absurd in Japan, wrote this brilliant play as homage to Beckett.
< The Author>
Minoru Betsuyaku is a leading playwright in the contemporary Japanese theatre.
Influenced by writers such as Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka, his absurd play The

Elephant [Zo] (1962) dealing with Atomic bomb victims received a remarkable attention.
He appeals to his audience in ways he uses the language vividly spoken by people of thelower middle class and develops absurd situations happening in our daily lives. He isknown as the most prolific writer of our day; he not only wrote more than 130 plays but
also produced children’s stories, essays, criticisms, etc.
1966

Founded the Waseda Little Theater with Tadashi Suzuki.

1968

Awarded the 13th “New Theatre” Kishida Kunio Drama Award for his play The

Little Match Girl [Match-Uri no Shojo] and A Scene with a Red Bird [Akai Tori noIru Fukei].
1970

Awarded the Kinokuniya Theater Award for A Town and a Blimp [Machi toHikosen] and Alice in Wonderland [Fushigi no Kuni no Alice].
1987

Awarded the Yomiuri Literature Award for his collection of plays entitled The

Story of the Two Knights Travelling Around the Country [Shokoku wo Henreki Suru
Futari no Kishi no Monogatari] and Other Plays.
2007

Awarded the Kinokukniya Theater Award for Godot Has Come [YattekitaGodot].
2008

Awarded the Tsuruya Nanboku Award for Godot Has Come [Yattekita Godot].

2009

Awarded the Asahi Award for his long-time activity as a leading playwright who

has established the Theatre of the Absurd in Japan.
< The Director >K. Kiyama (1942〜2013). Graduated from the Law School, Doshisha University.
After working at Yomiuri Newspaper Company in Osaka, Theater Company
Bungaku-za, Theater Company Shiki, he founded a theater producing company Office
Kiyama in 1980 and has been producing about a hundred plays not only in Japan but
also in other countries since then; he produced Kanadehon Hamlet in New York,
London and Moscow, Barefoot Gen [Hadashi no Gen] in New York, Seoul and Poland,
and The Terminal is Japan [Saishu Mokuteki-chi wa Nihon] in Seoul and Pusan. Hehas been working as a director since 2004. His directorial works are A Scene with a Red

Bird [Akai Tori no Iru Fukei] (by Minoru Betsuyaku, produced in Seoul and New York),
It’ll Be a Long Way [Michi Tookaran] (by Kunio Kishida), The Legend of the Noon
[Shogo no Densetsu] (by Minoru Betsuyaku) and Sick [Byoki] (by Minoru Betsuyaku,produced in Moscow and Paris in 2010).