Waiting For Godot

Waiting for Godot returns to the Theatre Royal Haymarket for 11 weeks from 21st January following its hugely successful run here last year. Ian McKellen reprises the role of Estragon while Vladimir, previously played by Patrick Stewart, is taken on by Roger Rees. In a "play in which nothing happens, twice" (Vivian Mercier, Irish Times, 1956) two men wait by a tree in an unknown location at an unknown time for an unknown someone by the name of Godot. A stranger Pozzo (Matthew Kelly) and his slave Lucky (Ronald Pickup) pass through, a messenger from Godot arrives and leaves and then there's act two; a slight variation on what's just happened in act one. To all intents and purposes, nothing much happens. Still, with this stellar cast lines like "nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes. It's awful" take on a witty, self-depreciating meaning. Of course, no one actually believes that "nothing" is what Beckett intended; academics have always thought that some essential truth about life and art is bubbling just beneath the surface and its 1955 London premiere marked a seminal moment in theatre history. Seeing such stage greats tackle Beckett's controversial work over 50 years on is surely worth waiting for.