Editing Waiting for Godot (section)

=== Beckett's objection to the casting of female actors ===
Beckett was not open to most interpretative approaches to his work. He famously objected when, in the 1980s, several women's acting companies began to stage the play. "Women don't have [[prostate]]s", said Beckett,<ref>Meeting with Linda Ben-Zvi, December 1987. Quoted in "Introduction" to Ben-Zvi, L., (ed.) ''Women in Beckett: Performance and Critical Perspectives'' (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992), p. x.</ref> a reference to the fact that Vladimir frequently has to leave the stage to urinate.

In 1988 a Dutch theatre company, De Haarlemse Toneelschuur, put on a production directed by Matin Van Veldhuizen with all female actors, using a French-to-Dutch translation by [[Jacoba van Velde|Jacoba Van Velde]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://theaterencyclopedie.nl/wiki/Wachten_op_Godot_-_Stichting_Toneelschuur_Producties_-_1988-04-12|title=''Wachten op Godot'' – Stichting Toneelschuur Producties – 1988-04-12|website=theaterencyclopedie.nl|language=nl|access-date=29 March 2018|archive-date=8 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180808140202/https://theaterencyclopedie.nl/wiki/Wachten_op_Godot_-_Stichting_Toneelschuur_Producties_-_1988-04-12|url-status=live}}</ref> Beckett brought an unsuccessful lawsuit against the theatre company. "The issue of gender seemed to him to be so vital a distinction for a playwright to make that he reacted angrily, instituting a ban on all productions of his plays in The Netherlands."<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 610.</ref> This ban was short-lived, however. 

In 1991 (two years after Beckett's death), a French judge ruled that productions with female casts would not cause excessive damage to Beckett's legacy, and allowed the play to be performed by the all-female cast of the Brut de Beton theater company at the [[Festival d'Avignon|Avignon Festival]], although an objection by Beckett's representative had to be read before each performance.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/06/theater/judge-authorizes-all-female-godot.html|title=Judge Authorizes All-Female ''Godot''|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=6 July 1991|agency=[[Associated Press|AP]]|access-date=6 October 2021|archive-date=6 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006025007/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/06/theater/judge-authorizes-all-female-godot.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Similarly, an injunction was issued against a theatre in Pontedera, [[Tuscany]], by lawyers for [[Samuel Beckett]]'s estate who did not want female actors to play Vladimir and Estragon in the play, but in 2006 a court in Rome ruled that the women could play the roles.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/04/arts.italy|title= Beckett estate fails to stop women waiting for Godot|newspaper= [[The Guardian]]|date= 4 February 2006|access-date= 18 December 2016|archive-date= 21 May 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013140/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/04/arts.italy|url-status= live}}</ref> 

At the 1995 [[Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre|Acco Festival]], director [[Nola Chilton]] staged a production with Daniella Michaeli in the role of Lucky.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.accofestival.co.il/accoarchiv/1995/1995.html|title=Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre, 1995 Archive|website=accofestival.co.il|access-date=24 April 2009|archive-date=21 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721134630/http://www.accofestival.co.il/accoarchiv/1995/1995.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2021, [[São João National Theatre]] in Porto, Portugal, staged a version with Maria Leite as Lucky.<ref>{{cite web|title=À Espera de Godot · São João|date=26 March 2021 |url=https://www.tnsj.pt/pt/espetaculos/6078/a-espera-de-godot|access-date=24 September 2024}}</ref>