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Review Round-up: Was Hall’s Godot Worth the Wait?

Sir Peter Hall’s 50th anniversary production of Samuel Beckett’s modern masterpiece Waiting for Godot opened at the New Ambassadors this week (Monday 9 October 2006, previews from 3 October), finally receiving its belated West End transfer (See News, 21 Sep 2006).

Two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, are waiting on a deserted road. As they pass the time, they ask the question: “Will Mr Godot ever come?” In the National Theatre’s NT2000 poll, theatre professionals voted Waiting for Godot the most significant English language play of the 20th century.

Hall directed the play’s English-language world premiere in 1955 when he was the 25-year-old artistic director of London’s Arts Theatre. In this production, first seen last summer as part of Hall’s annual summer repertory season at the Theatre Royal Bath, James Laurenson and Alan Dobie are Vladimir and Estragon, with Richard Dormer as Lucky and Terence Rigby as Pozzo.

Overnight critics all agreed Hall’s production of Beckett’s tragi-comedy in which “nothing happens, twice” offers a fascinating insight into the human condition, and they admired the performances of the four leads, particularly the central double-act of James Laurenson and Alan Dobie as Vladimir and Estragon.

Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph - "This was to be my third exposure to the play in 15 months, and there are only so many times a chap can take such cheery rib-ticklers as 'Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the gravedigger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries.'.... Much to my surprise however, I found myself thoroughly enjoying this superbly acted production by Peter Hall.... There is something strangely exhilarating about Beckett's unblinking vision of life in a Godless universe, and it is surprising how much the dramatist manages to salvage from the wreckage.... It's hard to imagine the play being better done than it is here. Hall evidently knows and loves every line of the text and he brings out every shade of mood and meaning. And James Laurenson and Alan Dobie... have established a wonderfully rich and intuitive double-act.... somehow, for all the gloom and despair, you emerge from the theatre with a renewed spring in your step. That's what great art does."

- by Caroline Ansdell

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