A study of Waiting for Godot and Happy Days as texts for performance, with detailed accounts of four performances: Waiting for Godot at the national Theatre, London, in 1987, and at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester; Happy Days with peggy Ashcroft, in 1976, and Billie Whitelaw in 1979. There is discussion of structure and setting, rhythm, language and style, and characterisation. Textual revisions made by Beckett himself in the course of directing the plays are noted in relation to the National Theatre production which incorporated some of them.