Wait Ends for a Yiddish Version of ‘Godot’

“Waiting for Godot,” Samuel Beckett’s signature, absurdist play, has a new twist: the New Yiddish Rep and the Castillo Theater are presenting what they bill as the first-ever production in Yiddish. The play, to run Sept. 20-Oct. 13 at the Castillo Theater, presents the characters as Holocaust survivors. The boy who is Godot’s messenger is played by a young African-American actor.

The co-production is the first collaboration between the theaters. The New Yiddish Rep started to present plays in Yiddish in 2007.  The Castillo Theater, at 543 West 42nd Street in Manhattan, presents a multi-cultural range of productions, many with African-American themes. Moshe Yassur, the director of the Yiddish “Waiting for Godot,” brought the two theaters together through his work with Woodie King Jr., the founder and director of Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theater, an important black theater company that has also collaborated with the Castillo.

“It’s the first time any Beckett has been in Yiddish,” David Mandelbaum, the founder and artistic director of New Yiddish Rep, said. “There have been a couple of translations of Godot into Yiddish but none of them got any full productions. The translation we’re using is a new translation by Shane Baker.”

Beckett, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1969, wrote “Waiting for Godot” in French. It was first presented in Paris in 1953.

“Yiddish is a marvelous language to give this play context,” Mr. Mandelbaum said of the tragi-comedy about characters waiting (and waiting) for salvation. “It is a living language full of cultural expression. Beckett, I think, was very aware of the historical context of what he was writing about, in the 1940s.”

While the words of the play are unchanged, the characters are depicted as Holocaust survivors, Mr. Mandelbaum said. “There’ll be a subtle costume hint: Vladimir will be wearing underneath his jacket a camp jacket. Estragon will be wearing his camp pants under his ordinary pants.”

Diane Stiles, managing director of the Castillo Theater, predicted that a diverse audience will be drawn to a “Waiting for Godot” in Yiddish, in a theater known for its mix of productions. Supertitiles in English and Russian will be available.

“This kind of cultural mash-up is right up our alley,” Ms. Stiles said. “We’re very excited.”