Classic theatre from Classic Theatre

WAITING FOR GODOT, Oldham Coliseum, to Saturday

I SOMETIMES wonder why any theatre company without benefit of major subsidy or big-name actors mounts a production such as this.

London Classic Theatre is on a hiding to nothing when it comes to audiences, even though this marks Beckett’s infamous play’s 60th anniversary in English.

I suspect the meagre group of a few dozen people in the theatre last night is fairly typical of many of the venues to which it will travel — and the Coliseum has one of the longest runs of the show, where others are showing it for as little as one night.

Michael Cabot — founder of LCT and director of this production — is to be applauded for continuing to present modern classic drama without worrying too much about box office.

As for this most difficult of modern plays, it’s only a tough watch if you think you need to understand it as it unfolds. Treat it as a surreal, pre Monty-Python sketch without an adequate set-up, run or conclusion and you’ll be fine...

Two tramps, bluff, earthy Estragon (Richard Heap) and higher-minded Vladimir (Peter Cadden) are by a tree at a nondescript meeting place. They talk, they bicker, they get bored, they pass the time by arguing and chatting about life, the universe and everything.

Along the way they meet the pompous Pozzo (Jonathan Ashley) and his “slave” Lucky (Michael Keane) and later are hailed by a boy (Sonja Zobel), who tells them Godot is on his way. He never, of course, arrives.

A meditation on modern life, on existential thought, on boredom, cruelty, ostracism; Godot is capable of being moulded into pretty much any thought you wish.

Bek Palmer’s set takes a few small liberties with what we normally expect to see for Godot - stepping stones instead of a road, trees floating off the ground with roots in full view and no visible means of support, tarnished mirrors on a dark backdrop to reflect back the dreaminess of the play, and so on.

And the performances are exemplary: watch a starry production of Godot and you get stars; see this one and in Cadden and Heap you get two fine performers who offer just Beckett.

I’m not saying it’s a an easy play and to call it a comedy is stretching things too far, but catch it in the right mood and you’ll be puzzling over it for days.