Nobody comes, nobody goes. It's awful.

-Let's go.

-We can't.

-Why not?

-We're waiting for Godot.

..Which I saw at the New Ambassadors last Thursday. My quick verdict: Very good. Not perfect, but I have extremely high standards when it comes to Beckett productions. Some of the guys at work were shocked when I stated that there is Shakespeare and then there's Beckett and no-one else is quite in the same league.

(I should mention, by way of qualification, that not only does this not mean that there is not awesome work by others out there, but, in fact, my favourite play isn't by Shakespeare or Beckett. I just think that, in terms of both style and ideas, Beckett and Shakespeare are the most consistently excellent.)

Didi and Gogo were both fabulous, playing at a faster pace than I would have chosen, but the resulting pith made up for the audience missing some of the jokes. It's always a difficult balance to strike with Beckett, and I don't begrudge them making a different choice to my own preference. I was a little less pleased by Pozzo and Lucky - once again, because of the direction, rather than anything the actors did badly. Pozzo could have been a little more superior, while Lucky gave a striking physical performance, but never one that spoke to me of exhaustion, nor of carrying the world on his shoulders.

Lucky's speech (particularly dear to me) was technically very impressive, funny, and it clearly amused the audience, but there was none of the urgency that the speech needs. The thoughts should be tripping over themselves on their way out; a continuous stream that has become rapids by the end. The speech contains three core ideas and these weren't put across to the audience inany way that they could have possibly understood without studying the play first. As I say, I think this must be laid at the door of Peter Hall (never let it be said that I won't tell truth to, or at least about, authority) rather than the actor, who did what was asked of him with aplomb.

Review over for the moment, I'd like to add my voice to the idea of a larger blog get-together. It's very intriguing to put faces to personalities, though it can be difficult to make the initial identification.

Unless you are, in fact, a cartoon dog like Billy.


-- Can somebody tell me what kind of a town we live in, where a man dressed up as a bat gets all of my press?! This town needs an enema!