Beneath a stark steel tree in a bleak upland bog, a literary masterpiece is set to assume a different linguistic mantle.
Samuel Beckett’s enigmatic tragicomedy Waiting for Godot will make its world premiere in Ulster Scots, a moment described as a “coming of age” for the minority language, and the antithesis of the trend for celebrity Godots.
On Good Friday, after an uphill trek of about 3km, the audience will arrive at a spot in the vast volcanic Antrim Plateau in Northern Ireland, if not footsore then certainly empathic to the physical discomfort of Estragon struggling to remove his ill-fitting boots.
The “existential landscape of heath, moss and bog” in County Antrim lends itself to a script “peppered with exterior references”, said Seán Doran, of festival organiser Arts over Borders, which is staging the production as part of a major new arts festival, the Samuel Beckett Biennale.
But while there have been previous outdoor productions, it will be the “forceful pronunciation and sound” of delivering it in Ulster Scots, or Ullans, for the first time and in a region where the language is spoken, that will “bring a whole new total register” and change the whole performative aspect of the play, said Doran.
In October, a commissioner for Ulster-Scots was appointed under the Identity and Language Act in Northern Ireland to act as cultural safeguard for the language, which has its roots in the early 17th -century plantations of Scots speakers to the north of Ireland.
Against this backdrop, Frank Ferguson, who is translating the play, hailed its performance as “a major coming of age moment”. “It shows a confidence in what Ulster-Scots can do as a language, because you take on one of the major global dramatic phenomenon and you place it within its Ulster-Scots translation.”
The working title is Ettlin Fur Godot, and its famous stage directions of “A country road. A tree. Evening” will translate as “A loanen. A tree. Dailygan”. Ferguson, research director of the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies at Ulster University, suggested that audiences may develop an ear for Ulster Scots, which has many words with similar roots to English – but that translations might be provided.
Ferguson considers it a language, not dialect, one that in the wake of the Good Friday agreement is “discovering itself and trying to find its way in the world”. And it works “beautifully” in the Godot setting, he said.
Not least because of “ the sense of waiting and hoping and longing for something; all minority languages are longing for that sort of moment of salvation, that moment of revelation. So, that looking, and hoping, and wishing for a Godot-like figure or moment works very well I think with Ulster Scots because in a sense it’s waiting for its moment to live and find itself again”.
It will be performed on Good Friday, 3 April 2026 (Beckett was born on a Good Friday), and is part of a new Beckett Biennale, which over the next 10 years will experiment with unexpected approaches including translations in Aboriginal Noongar, Sami and Inuit , and productions starring homeless actors.
Arts Over Borders, producers of cross-border north-south arts festivals, aims to bring Godot back to its original roots when it premiered in French in Paris in 1953 and in London and Dublin two years later. The biennale aims to be the antithesis of the current trend for productions starring big names.
Keanu Reeves is the latest Hollywood star, currently performing on Broadway; double-acts such as Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, Bill Patterson and Brian Cox, Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati, and Robin Williams and Steve Martin are others who have risen to its challenges.
Doran appreciates “celebrity Godot” as a vehicle that spreads the word more effectively than anything else. But he believes it can detract from other perspectives, possibilities and insights. “And that’s clearly what we’re trying to do through the different languages, the outdoor setting, the homeless actors.”
The Samuel Beckett Biennale will be set in rural and urban settings in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and England in 2026, returning in 2028.
