The Stage

Waiting for Godot

Published Friday 2 September 2005 at 17:45 by Jeremy Brien

Patrons of the summer season at the Theatre Royal, Bath are extremely fortunate to be the only UK theatregoers to enjoy - and most likely wonder at - this luminous celebration of the 50th anniversary of Peter Hall’s first English-language production of Samuel Beckett’s extraordinary play.

The contingencies of the Beckett estate mean that performances in London, or indeed anywhere else, are banned for the foreseeable future, a decision which in itself could qualify as ‘Theatre of the Absurd’. For this is not just a revival of a piece of theatrical history, it is a wry, fresh and funny look at what starts as an enigmatic puzzle of words, poetry and philosophy but emerges, in Hall’s sure hands, as an uplifting insight into human nature, fear of facing the future alone and our obsession with finding a meaning to life.

This is the fourth time Hall has directed the play and he admits that each has been rendered different by the chemistry between the players. Here he is blessed by two mesmerising performances as the two endlessly waiting tramps by James Laurenson as Vladimir, sometimes seen as representing the intellect in Beckett’s metaphorical world, and Alan Dobie as Estragon, illustrating his grim fatalism. Their shared endurance beautifully underlines Beckett’s message of our reliance on our fellow humans. This is also seen to a lesser extent in the mutual dependence of Terence Rigby’s aristocratic tyrant Pozzo and Richard Dormer’s anguished slave Lucky - a suitable name also for anyone fortunate enough to see this production.