Waiting For Godot

Theatre Royal, Haymarket | ★★★★✩

When 15 years ago Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart teamed up to play Estragon and Vladimir on this very stage, it was like watching two old hams attempting to return day after day to the glory of their acting careers. Even the design of a crumbling theatre with its decrepit lighting rigs suggested that Samuel Beckett’s absurd duo were living in a landscape particular to their past instead of this “bitch of an Earth” where the rest of us live. There was no doubt about their identity.

Not so in this new production directed by James Macdonald. As played by Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati it might be less obvious what and who their Estragon and Vladimir used to be, but the result is that they are more everyman; more us.

One black, one white; one round, the other thin; one pessimist relying on the other’s optimism to make it through another day; I defy anyone not to see themselves on this stage.

Rae Smith’s design is of an ashen earth populated by a petrified tree that turns out to be miraculously alive, and also by random passersby Pozzo (Jonathan Slinger), a heartless landowner and his gormless then unstoppably articulate slave Lucky (Tom Edden).

The acting is superb. Next to Msamati’s weary Estragon Whishaw’s mesmerising Vladimir is a hummingbird of hope, denial and ultimately acceptance. Perhaps Estragon might have varied his response to the regular reminder that they are waiting for the mysterious Godot. But any evening that not only makes us laugh but reminds us that our mothers gave birth astride the grave is essential.