Waiting For Godot Archives - North West End UK

Waiting for Godot – Theatre Royal Haymarket

9Dec

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London

Waiting for Godot – Theatre Royal Haymarket

Director James MacDonald breathes new life into Samuel Beckett’s absurdist 1953 tragicomedy about two down at heel men waiting for a mysterious figure to appear, with a fresh and engaging interpretation that focuses more on the inherent humour within the play rather than just the disconsolate existentialism with which it is usually associated. Opening to a dystopian landscape bereft of any positive discernible feature other than a leafless tree, we encounter Estragon/Gogo (Lucian Msamati) and Valdimir/Didi (Ben Whishaw), as they wait for Godot. Whilst their connection to each other is unstated, there is an endearing affection between them that pervades their ongoing conversations about something and nothing, which distracts from the obvious bleakness of their everyday lives. The appe...

Waiting for Godot – Theatre Royal Haymarket

Well, these are two very well-spoken "tramps". A wired Didi (Ben Whishaw) jolts and flourishes across the space, amidst a more weighted, stony Gogo (Lucian Msamati). The two are equally as confounded as each other, torn between wavering uncertainty and resignation to the fact. As the title of the play reveals, they are waiting for Godot. In Beckett's classic, we are not entirely sure who Godot is or why he is being waited for, and neither, as it seems, are the characters. Whishaw and Msamati play their respective characters so beautifully. It is like watching a dance - their responsivity and spontaneity is glorious, and they find musicality in the repetition. This much studied play has plenty of meat to chew on. The real juiciness of it, as brought out by Whishaw and Msamati ...

Beckett: Unbound 2024 – The Tung Auditorium

The Beckett: Unbound 2024 Festival’s music curation responds to the theatre and dance programme via six contemporary works, featuring three world-première commissions and two UK / France premières. Composer Barry Guy’s Quindecim for baroque violin (Maya Homburger) and double bass (Guy) is a response to Swiss architect and artist Max Bill’s ‘Fifteen Variations on a Single Theme’ exploring the artist’s idea that ‘once the basic theme has been chosen - whether it be simple or complex - an infinite number of different developments can be evolved according to individual inclination and temperament’. The work incorporates four Beckett texts (Thither, 10 Mirlitonnades, The Downs, One Dead of Night) into its highly intricate ‘molten architecture’. Guy’s work for solo cello and electronics ‘S...