David Bradby is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies and Dean of Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London. Awarded the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres (Republique Francaise) in 1997. He is a leading expert in the areas of modern theatre, especially French drama. He has translated plays by Bernard-Marie Koltès and Michel Vinaver and directed many productions with student casts, including the first English-language production of Pirandello's The Mountain Giants. His books include Mise en Scene: French Theatre Now, co-authored with Annie Sparks (Methuen, 1997); The Theatre of Michel Vinaver (Michigan University Press, 1993), Modern French Drama, 1940-1990 (Cambridge, 1991) and Director's Theatre, co-authored with David Williams (Macmillan, 1988). David Bradby is General Editor of the series Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre.
List of productions; Introduction; 1. Beckett before Waiting for Godot; 2. Waiting for Godot - the play; 3. The first production: Theatre de Babylone
January 1953; 4. The first productions in English: Arts Theatre
London
August 1955 and Pike Theatre
Dublin
October 1955; 5. Early productions in the United States: Coconut Grove
Miami
January 1956 and Actor's Workshop of San Francisco 1957; 6. Beckett's own production: Schiller-Theater
Berlin
March 1975; 7. 'Fail again. Fail better.': productions in Avignon
Prague
Munich
Holland and Japan; 8. Godot in political context: productions in Belgrade
Sarajevo
South Africa
Palestine
Quebec
Paris and China; 9. Productions at the end of the twentieth century; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
