Review: Waiting For Godot, Haymarket

REVIEW
The lights go down and Sir Ian McKellen clambers creakily up the back of the set into a bleak wooden world.

There's nothing there but a solitary tree and a lump of stone breaking up the rather too neatly distressed floorboards of this indeterminate ruin.

McKellen is Estragon (Gogo). Anything more we do not know, other than that he appears to be a tramp, beaten after sleeping in a ditch.

How do we know? Because he says as much to his companion Patrick Stewart who is Valdimir (Didi).

Didi is also of indeterminate origin, but appears more energetic and appears able to generate a supply of root vegetables offering meagre sustenance.

And this is just as well because the pair are in for a long wait. They are waiting for Godot.

They pass the time as one might expect two national treasures to pass it, by horsing around in character, bumping up against profundity with all the delicacy of Gogo's abortive attempt to eat a turnip.

Still, it's fun to watch them bounce off each other and McKellen's comic timing is spot on.

Stewart is less good at the comedy but better at exuding a thin veneer of joviality despite his character, Didi, being very ill-at-ease with the situation.

Did Godot see them? When was it? Where was it? Where were they to wait? Has anyone seen them at all?

Fortunately, just as the audience is about to topple into the sucking whirlpool of madness and sanity created by the two old hams, Simon Callow (playing Pozzo, not Godot geddit) arrives with his menial-on-a-string, Ronald Pickup.

Pozzo is loud, rude and shouty - perfect for Callow - whose time on stage provides a surreal interlude as he lets the full force of his personality loose on the largely unmoved duo.

There is much concern over why the menial, who is referred to loudly as Pig at unnecessarily frequent intervals in a voice too loud for indoor use, does not put down his bags.

Of course nobody bats an eyelid about the fact Pozzo controls his servant with a rope tied loosely round his neck. That's clearly just the natural order of things.

They depart. "That passed the time," remarks Didi. "It would have passed in any case," counters Gogo.

Suffice to say, Godot doesn't come, but the pair receive a message saying he will the following day.

Then pretty much the same thing happens again with a few crucial differences - Pozzo is blind and can't remember Gogo and Didi and it's a different boy with the message.

And of course, Godot doesn't come. The end.

The production I saw was slick. But I would expect nothing less from such a cast.

Frankly I was left with the impression that on the whole they were going through the motions rather than trying to cut to the edges of the play.

The whole performance felt a little lifeless despite Stewart's obvious attempts to inject some forceful passion.

But then maybe that's the point.

While I didn't feel the depth of boredom the characters felt, I was certainly bored by parts of the play.

And that might well have been what I was meant to feel - the best way to get a flavour of the duo's dull wooden world.

So the paradox becomes - why, if a play is not enjoyable or entertaining, would anyone want to watch it?

For two reasons. Firstly to find out if Godot comes. Secondly to see if the duo remember a piece of rope to hang themselves with in the second act.

Take one along with you if you decide to go. Maybe they'll improvise in the first and save you the bother of having to wait to find out.

That'll pass the time.