By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

WHEN?: Saturday 28 September (matinee), runs through 21 December 2024 RUNTIME: 165 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for Godot and, apart from that, it’s possible to read any number of interpretations into what Samuel Beckett’s classic 1948/49 play is actually about.

• Read on for reasons including how this production warmed our heart in a way we weren’t expecting

We last saw Whishaw at the Royal Court (Bluets) and here he stars opposite Lucian Msamati (Talking Heads, Bridge Theatre) in the gayest interpretation of Waiting For Godot we have ever seen.

Msamati’s Gogo has sore and stinking feet as we meet him trying to remove his boots on a stage all but bare except for a willow tree which has lost almost all of its foliage.

Whishaw’s Didi occasionally sniffs inside Gogo’s boots when he isn’t looking and they sometimes do feel like a couple who don’t always see eye to eye but do look out for each other with real affection while sharing a common goal to wait for someone who may allow them a comfortable night together in hay.

They are visited twice by another ageing male couple – Pozzo and Lucky – who have been together for 60 years and exist by Pozzo controlling Lucky through the use of an extremely long rope which Pozzo jerks if Lucky is slow.

Lucky is predominantly mute although does spring into life to dance like Ricky Gervais from The Office and think out loud depending upon Pozzo’s whim.

Gogo and Didi do have fun and bring to mind Laurel and Hardy as they play a game late on which involves switching different hats including Lucky’s onto their heads at quick speed.

Irish playwright Samuel Beckett worked with the French resistance on the ground during World War Two and some view Godot as a reflection of that period with Didi and Gogo being Jews waiting for Godot to help smuggle them out of occupied France.

Next year Jamie Lloyd (Sunset Boulevard, Savoy) will direct a Godot on Broadway starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter from beloved film franchise Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure as Gogo and Didi respectively.

Whishaw and Msamati bring a humanity and comic believability to the characters in this James Macdonald (True West, Vaudeville Theatre) production that succeeded in warming our heart in a way that we weren’t quite expecting.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Theatre Royal Haymarket Tickets
• Have you seen a Ben Whishaw show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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