WAITING FOR GODOT To 9 August.
London.
WAITINGH FOR GODOT
by Samuel Beckett.
Theatre Royal Haymarket To 9 August 2009.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm Sun 3pm.
Runs 2hr 40min One interval.
TICKETS: 0845 481 1870.
www.waitingforgodottheplay.com (up to £3.50 booking fee per ticket by 'phone and online).
Review Mark Courtice 7 May 2009.
Establishment take on a theatrical revolution.
At the curtain call of this production of Beckett's iconoclastic classic, reading from left to right there's a KBE, an OBE and a CBE; it’s surely only a matter of time before the estimable Ronald Pickup comes to the attention of the Empire; then there'll be a full house.
It all seems a bit Establishment - what since 1953 has attracted theatrical revolutionaries is now much tamer in the hands of national treasures.
There is singing, dancing, soft-shoe shuffle, all delivered by two of the best Macbeths in the business. Beckett's tramps clown around so as not to have to face the horrors that lurk beneath the surface. Here they’re trying to entertain themselves out of trouble.
Callow gets it right. He is almost purple as he blusters. His woe could not be deeper, his showing-off more childishly demanding. Yet the fragility of all this is cleverly done; in a moment when he needs to ask for an invitation to sit down, the vulnerability is a shock. This is the performance of the night; vicious, risky, revealing.
The national treasures sacrifice the danger for winsomeness. Both performances are knowing, charming and capable (although it's obvious that the music hall routines aren't their natural metier), but in the end uninvolving. This is more like the anniversary special of a fifty year double act, rather than a moment in a fifty year struggle with pain, terror and random beatings which two people find less terrifying if they face it together.
Sean Matthias’s production goes for busted theatricality in a big way, setting the show in a ruined theatre, with a solitary tree growing out of the broken-up stage.
The production is very specific; Stephen Brimson Lewis's set is obvious with the detail tying things down instead of suggesting possibilities, the lighting and sound are busy and distracting. The references to the audience are laboured - we are the "bog" at one point. Things Beckett left unsaid are here shouted out. As strange light throbs behind a window and smoke curls through the gaps, you begin to fear Godot might appear after all.
Estragon: Ian McKellen.
Valdimir: Patrick Stewart.
Pozzo: Simon Callow.
Lucky: Ronald Pickup.
Boy: Tom Barker/Richard Linnell/George Sear/Sam Walton.
Director: Sean Mathias.
Designer: Stephen Brimson Lewis.
Lighting: Paul Pyant.
Sound: Paul Groothuis.
2009-05-09 12:50:07