Waiting for Godot – Barbican/Sydney Theatre Company, London

Waiting For Godot

Let me preface this by saying I had only ever seen Beckett performed once before, and it was when I was living in Korea. It was a Chinese production. Played like traditional Chinese theatre. With surtitles in Korean and English. I left halfway through, by rationalising that the second half is much like the first, so it was almost like I’d seen the whole thing.

My expectations for this production by the Sydney Theatre Company at the Barbican, then, were not very high. They were far surpassed by an interpretation which was by turns bleak, funny, thoughtful and full of slapstick laughs. Several critics read the set design as a demolished theatre. I didn’t pick up on that, but did see that it was a post-apocalyptic ruined building of some sort.

The theatre angle does pick out an interesting side to this production, with its frequent reflection on the parallels between Didi and Gogo sitting out their days waiting for Godot, and theatre audiences sitting out their evenings watching them do it. The post-apocalyptic angle contributes to the bleakness, with a sense that Didi knows more than he is letting on about the likelihood of Godot ever showing up.

An Acting Masterclass

There are some fine acting turns in this production. Hugo Weaving’s arrogance as Didi is nicely cut down to size by Richard Roxburgh’s down-to-earth Australian Gogo. Philip Quast is booming and nonsensical as Pozzo. And Luke Mullins is frankly incredible as Lucky, mainly in the humour and horror of his physical performance. It must be incredibly demanding. Overall the lines are well-delivered to give the best balance between being genuinely quite funny, and giving a glimpse into the existential void.

So basically the Sydney Theatre Company has singlehandedly brought me around to a new appreciation of the works of Samuel Beckett. Given how much better this version of Waiting for Godot was than the last one I saw, I might just retire happily from viewing this particular play for now. But the next time the Barbican stages a Beckett festival, I may just have to look at what else is on offer.