{"id":1677,"date":"2009-05-07T23:27:34","date_gmt":"2009-05-07T22:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/blog\/?p=1677"},"modified":"2015-04-19T07:35:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-19T07:35:21","slug":"mckellen-and-stewart-make-godot-a-surefire-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=1677","title":{"rendered":"THEATRE REVIEW: McKellen and Stewart in ‘Waiting for Godot’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ian<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 So much portentous meaning has been read into Samuel Beckett\u2019s play \u201cWaiting for Godot\u201d that it\u2019s pleasure to be reminded by Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart what an entertaining show it is.<\/p>\n

The two \u201cX-Men\u201d adversaries are sublime stage actors and they are simply wonderful in Sean Mathias\u2019 new production of \u201cGodot\u201d at London\u2019s Theatre Royal Haymarket, where their Hollywood star power has helped bring in a record box office advance of \u00a32.4 million.<\/p>\n

McKellen is Estragon, or Gogo, and Stewart is Vladimir, or Didi, in the tale of two aged ragamuffins who fill their idle days with conversation that ranges from oblique philosophy to music hall banter.<\/p>\n

The play\u2019s puzzles and profundity do not require the pigeonholes of religion, homosexuality or existential despair to which it has been consigned since it was first performed in English in 1955. Beckett wrote it in French, doing his own translation for the play that debuted in New York in 1956.<\/p>\n

\"Ian-McKellen-Estragon-Ronald-Pickup-Lucky-Patrick-Stewart-Vladimir-and-Simon-Callow-Pozzo-photo-by-Sasha-Gusov\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The two principles spend their time in a wasteland of rubble beside a crumbling brick wall and a dying willow tree waiting for the arrival of a savior who never comes named Godot, which they pronounce \u201cGod-o\u201d with the emphasis on the first syllable.<\/p>\n

Beckett said he did not mean Godot to represent God but it smacks of his typical sense of mischief that he would use that name. He states clearly the characters\u2019 central dilemma: \u201cWhat are we doing here? That is the question.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pessimistic Gogo concludes there is \u201cNothing to be done\u201d while the slightly more sanguine Didi believes that answers will come along if they just \u201cwait for Godot.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKellen plays Gogo as a doleful English northerner who laments that \u201cWe all are born mad, some remain so,\u201d while Stewart gives the ailing Didi a jaunty optimism: \u201cHabit is a great deadener.\u201d<\/p>\n

Together they make a terrific double act in the manner of Laurel & Hardy, as Beckett intended. Simon Callow is a colorful Pozzo, the pitiless entrepreneur who keeps his slave Lucky (Ronald Pickup) at the end of a rope.<\/p>\n

The cast makes the most of the play\u2019s wide-ranging musings on the fate of mankind and while Beckett offers plenty of fuel for the imagination, it\u2019s also true that thanks to the splendid performers the audience leaves with a smile.<\/p>\n

Venue: Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, runs through July 28;\u00a0Cast: Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Simon Callow, Ronald Pickup, Tom Barker;\u00a0Playwright: Samuel Beckett;\u00a0Director: Sean Mathias;\u00a0Set designer: Stephen Brimson Lewis;\u00a0Lighting designer: Paul Pyant;\u00a0Sound designer: Paul Groothius<\/p>\n

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter. Photo by Sasha Gusov<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 So much portentous meaning has been read into Samuel Beckett\u2019s play \u201cWaiting for Godot\u201d that it\u2019s pleasure to be reminded by Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart what an entertaining show it is. The two \u201cX-Men\u201d … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,16],"tags":[276,651,953,1040,1065,1091,1163],"class_list":["post-1677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-theatre","tag-waiting-for-godot","tag-ian-mckellen","tag-patrick-stewart","tag-ronald-pickup","tag-samuel-beckett","tag-simon-callow","tag-theatre-royal-haymarket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1677"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7275,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions\/7275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}