Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot (Theatre Royal, 1.4.2009)

"Gandalf and Jean-Luc bringing Sam Beckett to Baff? I'm in!" - this was my thought when chance brought the Royal's what's-on to my hands back in November '08. Needless to say, Gandalf was nowhere to be seen in Ian McKellen's Estragon (Gogo), and there was none of Captain Picard in Patrick Stewart's Vladimir (Didi). The Telegraph described this as a "once-in-a-lifetime theatrical event", and so I could only gape when my friend gave up his ticket in favour of a gig in Bristol. Waiting for Godot tells the story of two tramps, Estragon and Vladimir who spend their time joking, weeping, contemplating suicide, discussing the Bible while waiting for Godot, a man who never shows up. They are interupted twice by Pozzo, a pompous man who, though lordly, seems to have lost his way and his slave Lucky, bullied by Pozzo and led around by a rope round his neck.

This is the first piece of theatre I've seen with such an accomplished cast and crew and such challenging material, and it was a fantastic experience. Sean Mathias' direction pays great attention to the detail of Beckett's stage directions. There was always something to look at, which I consider an achievement on such a sparse stage. During Pozzo's rambles and monologues, Gogo and Didi were always doing something, pulling faces, whispering, the characters didn't falter for a second.

The actors' performances gave that perfect balance needed for Beckett, where it's just funny enough to keep the audience from crying at the bleak world he portrays. Act II starts with Stewart like a vaudevillian, dancing and singing songs that are funny until you realise he can't remember the words. McKellen's Gogo is a vulnerable, grumpy old man who bites back at Didi's every attempt to cheer them up, "We are happy. What do we do now that we are happy?". Despite their arguments and constant threats of "going", they are still together and this camaraderie was a striking part of the production.

There are fewer laughs with Pozzo and Lucky. Simon Callow's Pozzo wears a colourful outfit and gives a larger-than-life performance in Act I. There is also an incredible poignancy in Act II when he says, "they give birth astride of a grave". As he stares out at the audience with his blind eyes, we see the sadness beneath his clownish appearance. Ronald Pickup's Lucky is outstanding. Spending the majority of the play in silence, he relies on his physical presence to portray a world-weariness and sorrow at being enslaved to Pozzo. When Didi comments that "he's crying", a shiver ran through the audience, and Lucky's single, hysterical monologue kept us rapt and caused tumultuous applause in the house.

Mathias has capitalised on his cast's familiarity with the stage, with Beckett and above all, with each other and offered the audience a lot of laughs while never loosing sight of the desperation beneath the surface. Waiting for Godot is subject to many interpretations, but I take from this play the importance of not wasting one's life. For me, Godot is not death or God, but that dream that will never be realised without some kind of effort. I find it a little ironic, and perhaps hopeful, that the production team behind Waiting for Godot has in no way wasted their time. Didi and Gogo may have spent decades wasting their time and waiting for Godot, but Stewart and McKellen are back to what they do best.