ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a more politically engaged reading of Beckettian theatre, by bringing it side by side with its Egyptian counterpart. Through expressions of loss and frustration which seem to haunt playwrights on both camps, this chapter looks at the rebellious drive in what has for so long been dismissed as apolitical. By focusing on Masir Sursar [Fate of a Cockroach] by al-Hakim and Al Wafid [The New Arrival] by Mikhail Roman, and how they present the existential struggle that ensues with unfulfilled dreams, the chapter proposes a different take on the centrepiece of the Beckettian canon, Waiting for Godot.
