Rejected by New York producers, the play premiered in West Berlin at the Schiller Theater Werkstatt on September 28, 1959, in a double bill with the German premiere of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape.[2][3][4]
The play premiered in the United States Off-Broadway in a production by Theatre 1960 at the Provincetown Playhouse on January 14, 1960, and closed on May 21, 1961. The play was paired with Krapp's Last Tape. Directed by Milton Katselas, the cast was William Daniels (Peter) and George Maharis (Jerry).[5][6] Maharis left the production on March 6, 1960, to film Exodus. Peter Mark Richman (then known as Mark Richman) took over the role of Jerry on March 8, 1960.[7] Daniels and Richman performed to rave reviews for more than nine months. Richman left the production in January 1961.[8] The play won the 1960 Obie Award for Distinguished Play and Distinguished Performance, William Daniels.[5] (Michael Karlan replaced Mark Richman for six weeks when Richman left the show to shoot a film.)
