Waiting for Godot

This show has now closed, click here for a listing of current and future London shows

Waiting for Godot at the Theatre Royal Haymarket Theatre in London previewed 30 April 2009, opened 6 May 2009 and closed 9 August 2009. Returned from 21 January 2010, opened 27 January 2010 and closed 3 April 2010.

The return of the major revival of Samuel Beckett's classic play Waiting For Godot in London starring Ian McKellen, Roger Rees, Ronald Pickup and Matthew Kelly.

Two tramps clown around, joking and arguing, repeating themselves, as they wait through one day and then another, waiting for the mysterious Godot.

Samuel Beckett's play Waiting For Godot originally exploded on to the London stage some fifty years ago when it shocked as many people as it delighted. There had never been a play like it - the combination of music hall, poetry and tension redefined what is possible in theatre. Waiting For Godot is now accepted as one of the most significant plays of the 20th century and Samuel Beckett's characters have lost none of their power to fascinate and amuse modern day audiences. This major production of Waiting For Godot in London retusn to the Haymarket Theatre for a strictly limited 11 week season. Reprising their roles are Ian McKellen as 'Estragon' and Ronald Pickup as 'Lucky', joining them for the 2010 season will be Roger Rees as 'Vladimir' Matthew Kelly as 'Pozzo'. The production is directed by the acclaimed theatre and film director, Sean Mathias with designs by Stephen Brimson Lewis and lighting by Paul Pyant.

"Will Sean Mathias’s recast production of Samuel Beckett's play prove as successful as the one that astonished us by running for months at the same address last year? In many ways it deserves to do so. Ian McKellen and Roger Rees are more the doleful clown and the spry straight man than Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart... And in his droll, wry way McKellen’s Estragon is funnier than last year, funnier even than his famous Widow Twankey. The glum Lancashire accent helps. So does the warty nose. And so does some immaculate timing." The Times

"Last year Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart mesmerised audiences, though not most critics, as the two tramps in Sean Mathias’s unusually jaunty production of Samuel Beckett’s cryptic, remorseless tragicomedy. This revival may lack what I’ll dare to call the X-Men factor, but it has plenty of charm and spirit. Roger Rees replaces Stewart as Vladimir, while McKellen remains as Estragon, and Matthew Kelly takes over from Simon Callow as the blimpish, whip-cracking Pozzo, who is in effect the villain of the piece. McKellen and Rees have history — they once appeared side by side as Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night, and this is their eighth time together on the stage. Their chemistry is keen." The London Evening Standard

"Great plays change with time. Originally, Waiting For Godot tended to perplex and bemuse. These days, we're no longer so alarmed by it and Mathias dared to see the funny side as well as the desperation of its nihilistic vision. Two members of last year's original cast, Patrick Stewart and Simon Callow, have given up waiting, creating a slot for Roger Rees, who returns to the London stage after years in America, and the perfect part for Matthew Kelly... Roger Rees is partnering Sir Ian McKellen's tattered old tramp... They squabble, blather, cry and momentarily despair, but they also console one another, sometimes intentionally, but mostly just by being there, intimately familiar, intensely trusting. Alone, the daily struggle would not be worth contemplating. With such a companion, it's at least a possibility, and it is profoundly moving." The Mail on Sunday

"The pairing of Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart as Samuel Beckett's two tramps packed this theatre last year. The production returns -- not with Stewart, who has abandoned the wait -- but with Roger Rees, best remembered here for playing the title role in the RSC's Nicholas Nickleby before he moved to America. The inspiration for Sean Mathias's production remains the music hall and, egged on by the audience, the actors find far more laughs than usual in this tragicomedy." The Sunday Tines

Waiting for Godot in London at the Theatre Royal Haymarket Theatre previewed from 30 April 2009, opened on 6 May 2009 and closed on 9 August 2009. Returned from 21 January 2010, opened 27 January 2010 and closes 3 April 2010.