Godot's To Do List

Synopsis

‘Could I leave? Please? It’s just, I really have somewhere to be.’

A bewildered person wrestles with an endless series of surreal tasks dictated by a snarky, persistent mystery voice. 

A new short comedy about the absurd chaos of modern existence – marking the professional debut of Leo Simpe-Asante, winner of the inaugural 2025 Royal Court Young Playwrights Award and named 2026 Jerwood New Playwright, directed by Aneesha Srinivasan.

Godot’s To Do List was presented as a curtain-raiser and followed, every performance, by Gary Oldman (Slow Horses) in Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape which returnec to the Royal Court, where it played in 1958.

This celebrates a seven-decade-old tradition of curtain-raisers: Krapp’s Last Tape’s own debut was as a curtain-raiser on our stage.

Leo is the 2026 recipient of the Jerwood New Playwright accolade. The Royal Court Theatre’s Jerwood New Playwright Programme is supported by Jerwood Foundation.