Yesterday I had the afternoon off in order to go to THE THEATRE, as I am dead sophisticated like that.
The play I was going to see was Waiting For Godot at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and I was going to see it with my old pal Mr C Lawson, who was down in London especially for the occassion. The LAST time me and Chris went to see a play was ALSO Waiting For Godot, that time starring Captain Picard and GANDALF, and that had been BLOODY GRATE, so we had high hopes for this iteration.
When we got to the theatre we both said "Hang on, is this the same place where we saw it LAST time?" but it was only when we got to the BAR that we realised it TOTALLY WAS. This led to much discussion of coming to see this play EVERY 10-15 years or so in the same place, which to be honest would be fine by me.
It ALSO led to further comparisons with the Professor X/Magneto version, which I am afraid to say were not favourable for the current production, for LO! it was... sort of all right? As Chris said, it often felt like they were Saying The Words without hugely investing in what they actually MEANT. In places it was like one of those SHAKESPEARE productions where they've gone "This olde worlde speak doesn't make any sense, so let's say it loudly while making some extra noises and, if at all possible, miming something for LARFS". Also, they didn't seem to have decided whether it was meant to be PROFOUNDLY BLEAK or FUNNY or something else, so although there WERE laughs they were always slightly NERVOUS ones, as if the audience weren't sure whether they should or not.
The STAGING was dead good, I thought, as it looked like a PAINTING that had fallen slightly out of its FRAME, but there were some other aspects of The Production that seemed a bit daft. For instance, usually Vladmir and Estragon wear bowler hats but here they had WOOLLY hats on, which is FINE and looked good but then it meant that The Hat-Swapping Routine in the second half didn't work AT ALL. Also, Ben Whishaw's costume involved jogging pants, which is FINE similarly but then meant he had to MIME doing his flies up, which happens several times and made it feel a bit SCHOOL PLAY-ish.
There was quite a lot of that sort of thing, but then not really DIGGING the production did allow the ACTUAL PLAY to shine through A LOT. I have seen Waiting For Godot LOADS of times and INDEED have even DIRECTED it 300,000,000 years ago when I was a student (featuring Chris as Pozzo, in fact!) and so it was LOVELY to hear all the LINES and remember the different BITS as they happened. It really is BLOODY BRILLIANT, and it struck me that it would be AMAZING to do a version where you got Morecambe & Wise impersonators to do it AS Morecambe & Wise (Eric as Estragon, Ernie as Vladmir OBVS). I'm thinking about that again now and it is AMAZING!
It would have been nice if it had been BETTER but it was still FINE and we had a lovely time DISCUSSING it after, and also drinking BEER in various venues and also PIZZA - which, it turns out, is pretty much exactly what we did last time! Hopefully in another 10-15 years we can go back and see the Fassbender/McAvoy or Jackman/Reynolds versions!
