Waiting for Gordo (pronounced /ˈɡɒrdoʊ/) is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Trey and Dayon, wait for someone named Alex Gordon, aka "Gordo."
Gordo's injuries and bad attitude, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's premiere. The play is considered by some critics to be one of the most prominent works of the "Theatre of the Absurd".
Also described as "nonsensical", Waiting for Gordo is Beckett's translation of his own original French version, En attendant Gordo, and probably just goes to show why a GM shouldn't acquire or trade for sub-par second basemen and left fielders from the Chisox in the off-season, without considering the obvious additional implications for a MLB roster.
Throughout Waiting for Gordo, the reader or viewer may encounter religious, philosophical, classical, psychoanalytical and biographical — especially wartime — references. FanGraphs is not referenced in the play. There are, however, ritualistic aspects and elements taken directly from vaudeville and there is a danger in making more of these than what they are: that is, merely structural conveniences, avatars into which the writer places Trey and Dayton.
The play "exploits several archetypal forms and situations, all of which lend themselves to both comedy and pathos." Beckett makes this point emphatically clear in an important remark to Lawrence Harvey, saying that his "work does not depend on experience — [it is] not a record of experience. Of course you use it." Beckett referred to this method as "The Process."
Beckett tired quickly of "the endless misunderstanding" of the central point of the play, i.e., who the hell is Gordo anyway and what the hell is The Process?
Over the years, Beckett clearly realised that the greater part of Gordo's success came down to the fact that it was open to a variety of readings and that this was not necessarily a bad thing, since that confusion kept any number of people coming to the play, even though they had no idea what was going on, and were pretty tired of the play's depressing ending.
[Editor's note: a hauntingly similar play is described here. ]