Estragon (with Steve Martin as Vladimir). Beckett is even said to have wanted Marlon Brando in one production (with Buster Keaton as Vladimir). In Tom Stoppard's "Godot" pastiche, "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead", the character Rosencrantz closely resembles Estragon. Estragon Estragon (affectionately Gogo; he tells Pozzo his name is Adam) is one of the two main characters from Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot". His name is the French word for tarragon. Estragon represents the impulsive, simplistic side of the two main characters, much in contrast to his companion Vladimir's careful intellectualism and verbosity. He cares little for appearances, and is mostly
Samuel Beckett Days" (1961). These plays—which are often considered, rightly or wrongly, to have been instrumental in the so-called "Theatre of the Absurd"—deal in a darkly humorous way with themes similar to those of the roughly contemporary existentialist thinkers. The term "Theatre of the Absurd" was coined by Martin Esslin in a book of the same name; Beckett and "Godot" were centerpieces of the book. Esslin argued these plays were the fulfilment of Albert Camus's concept of "the absurd"; this is one reason Beckett is often falsely labeled as an existentialist (this is based on the assumption that Camus was an existentialist,